NCDRC directs MMT to pay over Rs 2 lakh to consumer for changing tour package at last minute

Apex consumer commission NCDRC has directed Make My Trip to pay over Rs 2 lakh to a consumer for deceiving him into buying an international tour package and then changing it three days before the journey.

The National Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission directed MMT to pay Rs 2,10,000, along with litigation cost of Rs 10,000 and penal damages of Rs 5,000, to a West Bengal resident for initially presenting him an itinerary promising sight seeing in Dubai and then replacing it with another one three days before the scheduled departure, which had no mention of any such services.

The commission noted that the travel company's brochure, which allowed it to forfeit the entire tour amount in case of cancellation within 10 days before the departure date, had left the complainant-- Manabendra Saha Roy -- with no option but to avail the package and undertake the journey in 2015.

"Three days prior to the date of the departure, the so-called final itinerary was given to Roy. The brochure allows the petitioner to forfeit the entire tour amount submitted by Roy in case of cancellation of the tour between 10 days preceding the scheduled date of departure. It means that the respondent was left with no option but to avail the tour," NCDRC's Presiding member Justice Deepa Sharma and member C Vishwanath said.

This act of MMT not only amounts to being "deceptive" but is also an "unfair" and "restrictive" trade practice, NCDRC said.

According to the complaint, Roy had booked a Durga Pooja Special Tour for Dubai in 2015 by paying almost Rs 2 lakh.

The tentative itinerary sent by the travel company, before the payment of package money, included details of a five-day tour programme.

Roy, who went to collect the air tickets three days before departure, was handed over another itinerary by MMT, which according to him was quite different from the earlier one.

"Admittedly a tentative itinerary was sent by the petitioner to the respondent on the basis of which the respondent booked the tour and paid the entire tour amount," the bench said.

The commission while dismissing MMT's appeal, upheld the order passed by the district and the state fora which had directed the travel company to compensate Rao.

"Findings of the fora below are thus based on the admitted facts. We find no reason to interfere in the findings of the Fora below. No illegality or perversity has been shown. No miscarriage of justice has also been shown," the commission said.