Newly-weds miss flight, cab service held guilty
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A jammed lock in a car boot proved costly for a cab service provider which was ordered to pay Rs22,088 as compensation to a honeymooning couple who missed their flight since their luggage could not be taken out.
The order against Meru Cab Ltd was passed by a Consumer Forum here on a complaint filed by Amit Vartak, a Thane resident.
A bench of the Consumer Forum—M. G. Rahatgaonkar and Jyoti Iyer--said calls to Meru's maintenance department going unanswered and absence of an emergency tool kit in the car's passenger section was a ‘clear-cut’ instance of deficiency in service.
"In view of these facts we are of the view that the complainant and his wife must have gone through immense mental agony and torture," the Forum said.
"The car company should bear in mind that being in service industry, that too in the 21st century, they cannot exercise such kind of deficiencies," it said and ordered Meru to pay Vartaks Rs22,088 in compensation.
"It is a must that every vehicle on the road must mandatorily have a tool kit so as to deal with any situation which may crop up anytime," the Forum added.
On October 28, 2009, Vartak and his newly-wed wife had hired a Meru cab for taking them to Mumbai Airport from where they were to board a flight for Kochi. The couple had planned a honeymoon in Kerala.
The cab took them to the airport in time, but on reaching there, the driver could not open the boot in which the luggage was kept, as the lock had got jammed.
According to Vartaks, the maintenance department of Meru allegedly did not respond to calls. When eventually a company mechanic succeeded in opening the boot, their flight had left and they had to rebook on another Kerala-bound flight, coughing up around Rs11,000.
On return, Vartaks sent a notice to Meru seeking compensation, and as the company did not respond, they moved the Consumer Forum seeking to recover cost of the airfare plus Rs 50,000 as costs for the stress and mental agony that the incident had caused.
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