Flight cancelled, refund refused. What you can do

What the law says

Two sources of law govern this: the DGCA's Civil Aviation Requirements, which set airline obligations, and consumer law, which gives you the remedy.

On a cancellation or delay, there is a clear line. The Supreme Court held in the Interglobe Aviation case that an airline is not liable to pay compensation for a delay or cancellation caused by factors beyond its control, such as bad weather or air traffic control instructions. But the same decision is firm on the other side: an airline is always bound to provide basic facilitation, refreshments, water, meals, and toilet access, to passengers stranded on board or at the terminal. A failure to provide that minimum facilitation during a delay is itself a deficiency in service you can claim for. The DGCA's Civil Aviation Requirements (Section 3, Series M, Part IV) set out these obligations for denied boarding, cancellations, and delays.

Refunds cannot be sat on. When a flight is cancelled, the refund is governed by the Civil Aviation Requirements and must actually be processed. Faced with a major disruption, the Supreme Court laid down a refund framework in the Pravasi Legal Cell case, directing airlines to refund fares and, where a carrier was in genuine financial distress, to issue a transferable credit shell that accrues value in place of an immediate refund, with the DGCA enforcing compliance. The principle is that your fare cannot simply be kept by the airline.

International flights carry a strict deadline. If your claim concerns international carriage, the Carriage by Air Act, 1972 sets a two-year limitation period. The Supreme Court held in the Bhagwandas Ramchandani case that this two-year limit extinguishes the right itself, and that the ordinary rules for condoning delay do not apply. So an international claim brought after two years is simply gone, and you should not wait.

Your remedy is deficiency in service. Where an airline does not comply with the DGCA requirements, you can approach a consumer forum for redress. Consumer law operates in addition to aviation law, not instead of it, so a consumer commission can hear your complaint. One caution: not every inconvenience is a deficiency. You have to show a real fault or shortfall in the service, and where a provider acted reasonably and in good faith, courts have declined to call ordinary inconvenience a deficiency.

Hotels and booking platforms must honour confirmed bookings. A confirmed booking is a contract. A hotel cannot arbitrarily dishonour a confirmed reservation, and courts have restrained attempts to pressure hotels into boycotting a booking platform and turning away guests who hold confirmed bookings. Where a booking platform botches your confirmed booking, that is a deficiency in service and a civil consumer matter, not a criminal one, so the consumer forum is your route.

What you can do

1. Keep everything: the ticket or booking confirmation, the cancellation or delay messages, receipts, and a note of what facilitation you were or were not given while you waited.
2. For a cancellation or delay, ask the airline for what the DGCA's Civil Aviation Requirements provide, a refund or an alternate flight as applicable, plus facilitation like refreshments and meals while you are stranded.
3. If the airline withholds your refund, press for it in writing. A refund is governed by the Civil Aviation Requirements and cannot be held back indefinitely.
4. If you were left stranded without basic facilitation, treat that as a deficiency in service, and you can claim compensation for it.
5. File a consumer complaint before the District Consumer Commission for deficiency in service against the airline, hotel, or booking platform, seeking a refund and compensation.
6. For an international flight, act within two years. The Carriage by Air Act, 1972 sets a strict two-year limit, and the usual grounds for condoning a late filing will not rescue a claim brought after it.
7. For a dishonoured hotel booking, remember that a confirmed booking is a contract. You can claim a refund and compensation, and the platform is answerable for a booking it failed to honour.

Cases that matter

M/S Interglobe Aviation Ltd. v. N. Satchidanand, Supreme Court of India (2011). The Court held that an airline is not liable to pay compensation for a delay caused by weather or air traffic control, but that it is legally bound to provide minimum facilitation, refreshments, water, and toilet access, to passengers stranded by a delay. A failure to do so is a deficiency in service for which a passenger can claim damages. This is the case that fixes the line between what you can and cannot claim on a delay.

Pravasi Legal Cell v. Union of India, Supreme Court of India (2020). Facing mass flight cancellations, the Court laid down a refund framework: airlines were directed to refund fares, and a carrier in financial distress could instead issue a transferable credit shell that accrues value, with the DGCA directed to ensure compliance. It establishes that a cancelled ticket's fare must be returned or preserved for the passenger, not simply retained.

Bhagwandas B. Ramchandani v. British Airways, Supreme Court of India (2022). The Court held that the Carriage by Air Act, 1972 is a complete code, and that its two-year limitation period extinguishes the right to claim damages for international carriage, so the ordinary delay-condonation provisions cannot extend it. If your dispute is with an international flight, this two-year clock is unforgiving.

Oravel Stays Pvt. Ltd. v. Kota Hotels Federation, High Court of Delhi (2020). A hotel booking platform obtained an injunction against a local hotel federation that was pressuring hotels to boycott the platform and dishonour confirmed bookings. The court held that while hotels are free to decide whether to contract with a platform, during a valid booking contract they cannot dishonour confirmed reservations, and inducing them to do so is unlawful interference. It confirms that a confirmed booking must be honoured.