Jharsuguda: The District Consumer Grievances Redressal Forum has pulled up Spice Jet airways and directed a compensation of Rs 60,000 to a passenger on grounds of inconvenience caused due to faulty coordination and losses incurred in the process in Odisha's Jharsuguda. In an order on Wednesday, the court directed the management authorities of the private airliner to compensate the passenger with Rs 50,000 for inconvenience caused along with Rs 10,000 for charges incurred during filing of the case. The order was issued by president of the consumer court forum Jigisha Mishra and forum member Anju Agrawal.

The complainant, former SDPO of Jharsuguda Nirmal Mahapatra, had filed a case with the consumer court after his RTI petition revealed irregularities in the airline's operations.

Mahapatra had alleged that he had booked tickets on Spice Jet from November 25 to 29 in 2021 for a family trip to Assam. While returning, they had to board a flight from Bagdogra to Kolkata and then take a train to Jharsuguda the following day. However, the flight on the scheduled date, after departing from Bagdogra, landed in Guwahati instead of Kolkata. The airline left for Kolkata three hours later and reached at 9.30 pm instead of the scheduled arrival at 6.30 pm due to which Mahapatra missed his train.

Left with no other option, he booked a taxi to Jharsuguda. As the journey was long, his wife and son fell sick and had to suffer, he had alleged.

After reaching, Mahapatra had filed an RTI to know why the flight was diverted to Guwahati instead of Kolkata without any prior information. The petition later revealed that the flight diversion was directed to board a passenger from Guwahati who had been left behind. But since the airline had not informed the passengers beforehand, Mahapatra had accused the management of poor and negligent service delivery causing much inconvenience to passengers.