Hyderabad: Famous travel aggregator Thomas Cook was ordered to pay Rs 1 lakh as compensation by the district consumer forum of Hyderabad to a senior official from the Indian Army for putting his life in danger in China.
Brigadier Manoj Kumar Maggo, who fought his own case in the court, had alleged that he would have been arrested in China on the charges of spying due to the error made by Thomas Cook in his travel document.
The travel company by mistake cancelled his ticket instead of his son's reservation, forcing him to travel between Shanghai and Beijing in a bullet train in another person’s name. The officer in his complaint stated that he was informed about the wrongful cancellation of his ticket only before starting the five-hour-long journey and had to go through extreme fear of being arrested by Chinese officials for travelling on a fake name and forged document.
He stated that he even informed the designated staff from the travel group's side about it. But the staff stated that she was helpless. The officer said that he narrowly escaped the grievous consequences as officials did not check the documents during the journey and afterwards.
The travel company stated that the tour was conducted as per the itinerary and none of the other tour members had any complaints. They said the wrongful cancellation of ticket was handled by an overseas service providing company, ‘Top View Holiday and Tours’, and the error cannot be attributed to them.
They stated that they were simply an agent who would ‘secure proper services for the tour from independent contractors and service providers and are not in control of overseas services.’ They added that alternate arrangements had been made which would not have jeopardized the officer's journey.
The brigadier had also raised a complaint that when attempted to leave the tour after the sad incident, the travel group did not terminate the tour, adding to his miseries. Issues regarding the accommodation were also raised, where the complainant demanded a full refund of Rs 2,09,625 of the tour money and Rs 8 lakh as compensation.
The court observed that the officer’s fear was ‘justified’ as defence personnel are often unknowingly categorized as spies due to unintentional errors. The court also observed that “just because travel was concluded without any unwarranted events or any consequential damage, the opposite party cannot absolve themselves of any wrongdoing and consequent damage that may have arisen.” The court thus ordered the travel company to pay Rs 1 lakh as compensation.
