Supreme Court reserves order on plea seeking full refund of air ticket booked during Covid-19 lockdown

A bench headed by Justice Ashok Bhushan and also comprising Justices R S Reddy and M R Shah reserved its order after hearing the detailed arguments and submissions from all parties including the petitioner and the Centre.

"We are reserving the order on the petition. We will pass appropriate order and/or directions in the issue," the bench said.

Solicitor General (SG) Tushar Mehta, senior law officer representing the Central government, today, clarified the Centre's stand that the credit shell facility could not be availed by travel agents who booked tickets during lockdown.

"So far as travel agents are concerned, we cannot regulate them. We don't have control over it. But suggestion is that a passenger can use the credit shell only through the agent" he said.

Justice Reddy then asked, "If the voucher (credit shell) is not used till the deadline, will the money go to the account of the agent?"

SG Mehta replied that the government could not control contractual obligations between agents and passengers.

We can recognise two agencies because they are recognisable - passengers and airlines. We have done our best to ensure that the passenger either gets the money back or gets the voucher which is transferable, Mehta said.

The Supreme Court was hearing the petition filed by the NGO, Pravasi Legal Cell, seeking full refund of the air tickets booked during the Covid period.