After his son’s travel plan from Canada to India was cancelled due to a personal emergency, a Chandigarh man approached the consumer commission alleging that an online travel booking portal refused to refund Rs 70,878 for the flight tickets, despite initially informing him that the refund process had started.

Finding the travel booking portal and the airline to be deficient in service, a bench of president Pawanjit Singh and member Mohan Sharma ordered them to refund the ticket amount and pay Rs 15,000 as compensation and costs for mental agony and harassment.

“The communication refusing a refund merely on the ground that the booking was non-refundable, after the earlier communication regarding initiation of a refund, demonstrates inconsistency in the services rendered by the travel booking portal,” the October 19 order read.

The commission said the complainant had cancelled the tickets promptly, within a day of booking and several days before the scheduled journey.…