Supreme Court to make airlines party in tickets-refund case | India News – Times of India

NEW DELHI: Thousands of passengers seeking refund of air tickets of flights cancelled during the lockdown can take heart as the Centre informed the Supreme Court on Tuesday that a solution had been arrived at even as the SC agreed to add all airlines operating in India as parties in PILs seeking refunds.
Solicitor general Tushar Mehta informed a bench of Justices Ashok Bhushan, R S Reddy and M R Shah that a joint meeting was held and a solution had been arrived at by the civil aviation ministry, which may not be acceptable to all stakeholders. At his request, the bench granted the ministry a week to file an affidavit detailing the solution. The PILs have challenged the decision of airlines to create credit shells against cancelled tickets instead of making refunds. Appearing for a petitioner, advocate CA Sundaram said, “Non-refund of the ticket money for cancelled flights is a violation of ‘civil aviation requirement’ of May 2008 order issued by DGCA.”
The bench said airlines had to be heard before any decision was taken. The matter has been listed for September 9.