AMIT JAY KUMAR JAIN Vs. SWISS INTERNATIONAL AIRLINES

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The petitioner-complainant being aggrieved of the order of the State Commission dated 14-07-2015 in First Appeal No.A/15/136 rejecting the plea of the petitioner to enhance the compensation has preferred this revision petition.

(2.) Briefly put, facts relevant for the disposal of the revision petition are that the petitioner-complainant is a Jain by religion and he is strictly vegetarian. Case of the complainant is that on 06-05-2011 he was travelling in the opposite party-airlines from Zurich to Mumbai. While purchasing the ticket he informed the airlines that he was a vegetarian and requested for a Jain meal. However, due to mistake he was served with a non-vegetarian food. The case of the petitioner in the complaint is that after eating a morsel of the food he was alerted by a fellow passenger that the meal served to him was non-vegetarian. When the complainant protested, the flight attendant Ms. Carol T. and Ms. Durga K. instead of being apologetic misbehaved with him. Claiming this to be deficiency in service petitioner raised a consumer dispute in District Forum at Mumbai.

(3.) The opposite party-respondent on being served with the notice filed a reply admitting that the petitioner had travelled in the opposite party-airlines on 06-05-2011 from Zurich to Mumbai and he had opted for a special vegetarian Jain meal. It was pleaded that due to human error on the part of the flight attendant non-vegetarian meal was served to the complainant but the complainant on being alerted by the other passenger protested and the meal was replaced by a vegetarian meal. As a gesture of goodwill opposite party-airlines offered that in future any one economy class ticket booked by the complainant from India to Europe or from Europe to India would be upgraded to business class and an apology was also tendered in writing on 20th May, 2011.