SC Verdict: Foreign airlines under consumer forum ambit

Recently, a bench of Supreme Court of India has passed an important ruling that foreign airlines, even if state-owned, enjoy no immunity from proceedings before consumer forum in India for redressal of grievances relating to deficiency in service.

• The Judgement said that while deciding that Ethiopian Airlines would be facing proceedings relating to late delivery of a consignment of reactive dyes from Mumbai to Dar-es-Salaam, Tanzania in 1992. The bench rejected the Ethiopian Airlines’ sovereign immunity claim, by referring to Warsaw Pact of 1929 followed by the 1955 Hague Convention relating to international carriage by air as well as the Carriage by Air Act, 1972, passed by both India and Ethiopia.