The State Consumer Commission imposed a fine of Rs 25,000 on Air Lanka for misbehaving with their passenger Suresh Kumar on September 30, 1998. "The airline staff at Chennai airportu00a0 snatched my boarding pass to accommodate another passenger," Kumar said in his statement to the court.

"The Rs 8,500 amount awarded by the district forum was peanuts, considering the humiliation the complainant underwent. So he decided to approach the state commission," said Uday Wavikar, Kumar's advocate.

Air Lanka had in its response clarified that another passenger had been accommodated in Kumar's place because the person was carrying a dead body and it was an emergency.

While the state commission did not find anything wrong in the airlines' decison to accommodate a needy passenger, it found the staff's conduct objectionable and asked Air Lanka to pay Rs 25,000, and an additional Rs 3,000, to compensate Kumar for what he had spent on the case. Failure to pay up within 45 days will attract an interest of 12 per cent.