Supreme Court held AAI responsible for negligence

The Supreme Court of India on Thursday held Airport Authority of India (AAI) responsible for the death of a 7 year old NRI Jyotsna Jethani who died after being sucked in the faulty escalator at Indira Gandhi International Airport in December 1999.

The Bench headed by Justice B N Agarwal slapped a compensation of Rs 1 crore to the victims family for the negligence and also dismissed the petition of the AAI that challenged the earlier judgement of the National Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission.

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The Apex Court defended commissions decision in 2004 which held AAI responsible for negligence and also maintained that burden of paying compensation could not be shifted to service providers OTIS which was maintaining the escalator.

Advocating that consumer should not be harassed in such grieving moment hence the court gave onus to AAI to recover the money from the service provider by initiating a case against it.

Geeta Jethani who saw her daughter being crushed in the escalator said that she revived the case because she does not want any body to lose their child in the way she lost hers.

The Court asked the AAI to pay 2, 50,000 francs as well as 10% interest on the amount calculated from January 1, 2000. Since franc is no more used as currency in France hence the franc will be converted to the newly adopted euro currency which is nearly equal to 1 crore, one of the highest compensation slapped to any organisations.