The Hindu Business Line : Panel clears emigration officials in seal affixing case

IT is not tenable to hold the airport emigration authorities responsible for any failure to affix the requisite seal in the passport resulting in the passenger being disallowed to undertake travel, the State Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission, Chennai has ruled.

Even assuming that there was some failure to affix the seal by the authorities, it could not give room for a complaint under the Consumer Protection Act.

It is equally the responsibility of a person travelling to verify before boarding a plane whether he has all the necessary documents and whether all of them are in order and whether the travel documents have been properly verified, signed or sealed by the officers concerned, said the Commission, consisting of Mr Justice A. Raman, President, Ms R. Vanaroja, Member-I and Mr Pon Gunesekaran, Member-II.

The main allegation of the complainant, Mr M. Ravichandran, of Papanasam in Thanjavur district, was that the appellant, Officer in-charge of emigration at the Chennai airport was negligent in not affixing the seal on the passport, with the result that he was not allowed to go out of Dubai airport and was detained by the Dubai police and deported back to India.

The complainant submitted that when he reached Dubai, the authorities there did not accept his explanation that the emigration Officials at Chennai had, through oversight, affixed the seal on the boarding card instead of on the passport.

Ultimately, he was sent back to Chennai by next flight, as a result of which he had to incur Rs 1,01,160 towards expenses for the airfare, visa, emigration, etc.

The complainant said that he suffered mental agony and tension on account of the "failure of the emigration authorities to discharge their duty".

It appeared that the Protector of Emigrants, Ashok Nagar, Chennai had affixed a seal on the boarding card instead of on the passport.

It was not established that the deportation of the complainant by the Dubai Government was on account of the absence of emigration seal on the passport.

"The complainant, before boarding the aircraft ought to have verified his passport to see whether the emigration seal had been affixed or not. It was also necessary for the complainant to prove whether affixing the seal in the passport was a must since many countries have dispensed with the same." The Commission said that the emigration officials were discharging a statutory function and not rendering any service.

If there was any act of omission or commission on their part, the remedy of the complainant was elsewhere. It was not the case of the complainant that he paid any fees to the emigration authorities. In such circumstances, the Commission said, it did not accept the order of the lower forum.

In its opinion, there was no contract of service or hiring of service as between the appellant (Passengers Emigration Division) and the complainant and that the complainant was not a consumer vis-à-vis appellant.

The complaint was not maintainable and therefore the lower forum erred in allowing the complaint. The appeal was allowed.

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