Chandigarh, September 19
The District Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission, Chandigarh, has directed Atulaya Healthcare Private Limited, Sector 11-A, to pay a permanent resident of the US Rs 74,685, the cost of air tickets. She and her children were not allowed to board a flight due to the wrong details mentioned in their Covid reports prepared by the laboratory.
The commission has also directed the lab to pay the woman a compensation of Rs 50,000 for causing mental agony and harassment, and Rs 10,000 as costs of litigation. Neelam Rana Kushwaha, a permanent resident of Folsom, California, US, in her complaint, filed through advocate Shaveta Sanghi, said she had booked tickets for a Qatar Airways flight from New Delhi International Airport to San Francisco International Airport in May, 2021. The departure was scheduled for June 10.
She and members of her family had given their samples for conducting the Covid-19 RT PCR test on June 8 at the Atulaya lab. She received the test reports via WhatsApp. As per the reports, their Covid tests were negative. However, the reports neither mentioned their nationality nor date of birth. Her age is 53 whereas the report says she is 52. She immediately contacted the lab representatives and pointed out the mistakes. The representatives told her that they had corrected the details on the ICMR website. However, it turned out that the details were not corrected on the website and the airline staff refused to allow them to board the flight.
A notice was sent to the opposite party but nobody appeared on its behalf. The commission held the lab guilty of the deficiency of service. The lab was directed to pay the ticket charges of Rs 74,685 to the complainant along with interest at the rate of 9% per annum from the date of filing of the complaint till realisation.
