The Supreme Court has ruled that foreign airlines, even if state-owned, enjoy no immunity from proceedings before consumer forum in India for redressal of grievances relating to deficiency in service. As per a report by Dhananjay mahapatra in TOI, a bench of Justices Dalveer Bhandari, M K Sharma and A R Dave gave this judgment while deciding that Ethiopian Airlines would be facing proceedings relating to late delivery of a consignment of reactive dyes from Mumbai to Dar-es-Salaam, Tanzania, nearly 20 years ago in September 1992.

In rejecting Ethiopian Airlines' sovereign immunity claim, the bench referred to the Warsaw Pact of 1929 followed by the 1955 Hague Convention relating to international carriage by air as well as the Carriage by Air Act, 1972, passed by both India and Ethiopia.

It said countries which participate in trade, commerce and business with different countries ought to be subjected to normal rules of the market.