SC gives relief to British Airways

The Supreme Court on Wednesday set aside a Monopolies and Restrictive Trade Practices Commission (MRTPC) order imposing a fine of around Rs 80 lakh on British Airways (BA) for the delay in a consignment delivery. However,the Court was silent on BA’s request to exempt air carriers operating on international routes from any liability to customers under the local laws. It referred the matter to the National Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission to “consider all the issues,both factual and legal,on the basis of pleadings/evidence led by the parties to the litigation”. It directed the apex consumer rights body to complete the proceedings “as early as possible”.

The MRTPC had on September 25,2009,described an alleged delay in the delivery of an international consignment as an “unfair trade practice” and imposed the fine but the Court held that “British Airways cannot be held guilty of unfair trade practice”. The MRTPC had said that BA did not live up to the expectation of “fast service” that urged its customer,Absolute Aromatics,to opt for its service after paying a “huge amount towards freight charges”.

British Airways (BA),represented by advocate Sanjeev Sachdeva,went on to contend before the SC that though the original delivery was from Delhi to Sao Paulo in Brazil,the company repeatedly changed the final consignment destination from Sao Paulo to London to Asuncion in Paraguay. The airline further argued that its duty to the company ended with the delivery of the goods to Sao Paulo,besides it did not even have a service to Asuncion.

It went on to plead that operators on international routes not be subjected to local legislation. “The liability of air carriers that operate on international routes cannot,it is submitted,be based on local legislation —- for this would result in chaos and inhibit the development of airline industry,” the airways told a bench of Justices RM Lodha and AK Patnaik.