The Supreme Court ordered Spicejet to pay Rs 10 Lakh as damages to a flyer suffering from cerebral palsy, who was forcibly offloaded by the airline in 2012, within two months.
The bench noted that the manner in which Jeeja Ghosh was deported showed a "total lack of senstivity" and that the disabled flier was not given "appropriate, fair and caring treatment", the decision to de-board her was "uncalled for".
A teacher at Kolkata's Indian Institute of Cerebral Palsy and a frequent flier across the country and abroad who has travelled alone, Ghosh(46) was offloaded because as per the pilot, she was not fit to fly. The airline took the decision without any medical advice or consideration, the apex court said.
According to the Indian Express report, a bench comprising Justices A K Sikri and R K Agrawal said: "On our finding that SpiceJet acted in a callous manner, and in the process violated Rules, 1937 and Civil Aviation Requirements(CAR), 2008 guidelines resulting in mental and physical suffering experienced by Ghosh and also unreasonable discrimination against her, we award a sum of Rs 10,00,000 as damages to be payable to her."
"Even if we assume that there was some blood or froth that was noticed to be oozing out from the sides of her mouth when she was seated in the aircraft(though vehemently denied by her), nobody even cared to interact with her and asked her the reason for the same.
"No doctor was summoned to examine her condition. Abruptly and without any justification, a decision was taken to de-board her without ascertaining as to whether her condition was such which prevented her from flying. This clearly amounts to violation of Rule 133-A of Rules, 1937 and the CAR, 2008 guidelines," the bench added.
