Search the Internet          Tips  Sites: Finance, Investment

Indian wins case against Kuwait Airways

Battling with a battery of lawyers for more than two years, a former Indian bureaucrat has finally won a case against Kuwait Airways for deficient service.

The 81-year-old O P Varma used all his experience to argue his case in a consumer court all alone against an impressive array of lawyers put up by the airline.

Varma, in May 1995, had bought a Kuwait Airways ticket to Stockholm from an authorised travel agent with stopovers in Kuwait and London during the onward journey and in Amsterdam on the return leg.

But, according to him, once in Kuwait, the airline refused stopovers. Trying to impress that the ticket was illegal and the stopovers contrary to the IATA rules on grounds of overwriting, the airline executives crossed out London and Amsterdam on the ticket, news reports Monday said.

As a result, a harried Varma was forced to travel to Stockholm and then take a flight to London causing him and his relatives great inconvenience as all their schedules were upset.

Varma, who was on a trip to visit his children, said: "I was an old man, all by myself in a strange land. My relatives were greatly inconvenienced as I had to cut short and replan my visit on the flight available.''

On his return, he sought a compensation of Rs 100,000 from the airline. Despite several reminders there was no response. He then went to a consumer court to seek justice in 1997.

He says it was a straight case which he thought would get over in six months. ''I had my facts right. But the kind of objections they raised were amazing and the case went on and on and also transferred to a new forum," he said.

It was two years later in 1999 that the airline's counsel asked for a compromise and offered Rs 25,800 as compromise which he accepted.

Claiming that the amount was not important, Varma said that as an aggrieved passenger he had to make his point which he feels he has.

UNI

Money

Business News

Tell us what you think of this report