After a nearly six-month legal battle, a court fined IndiGo Airlines for providing a dirty seat to a passenger. The woman, traveling with her husband and two children, was given a soiled and damaged seat, causing her distress and discomfort.
Delhi: IndiGo Airlines has been ordered to pay Rs 1.75 lakh in compensation after the District Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission found it guilty of providing unhygienic seating on an international flight. The court found that the seat provided to the female passenger on a flight from Baku in Azerbaijan to New Delhi was dirty and stained. The verdict, delivered on July 18 by Commission President Poonam Chaudhry and members Bariq Ahmed and Shekhar Chandra, stated that dirty and stained seats were a clear breach of passenger expectations and the airline’s contractual duties. The court also noted that the airline ignored the complaint filed by the passenger following the incident, which occurred during a journey in January.
The case was filed by Pinki, a resident of Chanakyapuri, Delhi, who was travelling with her husband and two family members from Baku to Delhi on January 2, 2025. Their tickets, costing Rs 48,739, had been booked through a travel agency on December 27, 2024. Upon boarding, Pinki discovered her assigned seats were soiled and unhygienic. When she complained, the cabin crew expressed their inability to clean the seats mid-flight. As a workaround, an air hostess shifted her to an isolated seat in the 14th row and apologised for the inconvenience.
Feeling dissatisfied, Pinki served the airline with a legal notice on January 13. Receiving no meaningful response, she approached the consumer commission, arguing that the ordeal caused significant emotional distress and physical discomfort, especially on an international journey. She described the experience as an example of “sub-standard service” and “misconduct” in the aviation sector. IndiGo claimed the issue was promptly resolved on board, but the commission disagreed, ruling that the initial state of the seating itself amounted to a service deficiency. The court highlighted the company’s failure to produce the Situation Data Display Report and awarded Rs 1.5 lakh for mental agony, physical pain, and harassment, with an additional Rs 25,000 towards litigation costs. The panel also reminded airlines registered in India that civil aviation rules require a functioning grievance redressal system and a dedicated helpline, in line with the Consumer Protection Act, 2019.