Delhi-New York flight ‘worst travel experience’: How passenger won Rs 1.5 lakh from Air India in Delhi conumer court
Directing Air India to pay the amount, the Delhi consumer commission said passengers can claim compensation if airlines fail to provide DGCA-mandated in-flight services.
3 min readNew DelhiUpdated: Jan 24, 2026 11:40 AM IST
The petitioner, Shailendra Bhatnagar, and his daughter, had submitted before the Commission that they had the “worst” travel experience with Air India. (File Photo, enhanced using Google Gemini)
A Consumer Commission in Delhi has directed Air India to pay Rs 1.5 lakh to a father and daughter, who were travelling from Delhi to New York in September 2023, over “deficiency in service”.
The petitioner, Shailendra Bhatnagar, and his daughter, had submitted before the Commission that they had the “worst” travel experience with Air India.
Despite spending over Rs 3 lakh on the tickets, they had claimed the seats were broken, backrest buttons were not working, and that the flight attendant call button was also defective. They also complained of a bad odour.
In a January 14 order, the Delhi District Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission held: “If the airline fails to provide facilities that are mandatory under DGCA [Directorate General of Civil Aviation] rules (like food, water, AC, communication, accommodation, or information about delay/cancellation), that amounts to ‘deficiency in service’. The passenger can then claim for refund and/or compensation.”
In December, following the Indigo fiasco when thousands of its flights were cancelled, the Delhi High Court had said there has to be compensation not only for cancellations and damages for the passengers’ sufferings and agony.
Clauses under the DGCA circular of August 6, 2010, includes stipulations and conditions under which airline service providers have to pay compensation to travellers.
What the commission said
To prove his case, the complainant placed on record photographs of the seats allotted to him and a legal notice which he had served to the airlines.
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The Commission said: “The complainant sent a legal notice on 01.11.2023. There was no answer to the legal notice. In the legal notice, all allegations, as made in the present complaint, are there but OP-1 maintained silence. Had there been no fault with the services of OP-1 [Air India], surely OP-1 must have reacted sharply.”
“During the course of arguments, we were very specific to put to OP-1 as to why OP-1 has given a very vague reply to paragraphs 4 to 9 of the complaint, wherein serious allegations relating to poor facilities and services of OP-1 are made. No satisfactory answer is given,” it added.
It said “keeping in view the facts and circumstances of the present case, this Commission is of the view that the complainant will be entitled for compensation for… mental agony and harassment [caused by] not providing facilities for which a considerable amount was charged by OP-1.”
While Rs 50,000 each for father and daughter was directed to be given as compensation, Rs 50,000 was earmarked for litigation expenses.
Nirbhay Thakur is a Senior Correspondent with The Indian Express who primarily covers district courts in Delhi and has reported on the trials of many high-profile cases since 2023.
Professional Background
Education: Nirbhay is an economics graduate from Delhi University.
Beats: His reporting spans the trial courts, and he occasionally interviews ambassadors and has a keen interest in doing data stories.
Specializations: He has a specific interest in data stories related to courts.
Core Strength: Nirbhay is known for tracking long-running legal sagas and providing meticulous updates on high-profile criminal trials.
Recent notable articles
In 2025, he has written long form articles and two investigations. Along with breaking many court stories, he has also done various exclusive stories.
1) A long form on Surender Koli, accused in the Nithari serial killings of 2006. He was acquitted after spending 2 decades in jail. was a branded man. Deemed the “cannibal" who allegedly lured children to his employer’s house in Noida, murdered them, and “ate their flesh” – his actions cited were cited as evidence of human depravity at its worst. However, the SC acquitted him finding various lapses in the investigation. The Indian Express spoke to his lawyers and traced the 2 decades journey.
2) For decades, the Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) has been at the forefront of the Government’s national rankings, placed at No. 2 over the past two years alone. It has also been the crucible of campus activism, its protests often spilling into national debates, its student leaders going on to become the faces and voices of political parties of all hues and thoughts. The Indian Express looked at all court cases spanning over two decades and did an investigation.
3) Investigation on the 700 Delhi riots cases. The Indian Express found that in 17 of 93 acquittals (which amounted to 85% of the decided cases) in Delhi riots cases, courts red-flag ‘fabricated’ evidence and pulled up the police.
Signature Style
Nirbhay’s writing is characterized by its procedural depth. He excels at summarizing 400-page chargesheets and complex court orders into digestible news for the general public.
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