The next time your baggage goes missing from the conveyor belt, blame both the airline and the airport — and brace for a decade-long duel to win a token compensation.

The State Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission has, in a recent order, directed a private airline to pay Rs 5,000 as compensation — “for the mental agony and inconvenience suffered” by P.R. Vharech, a resident of Keyatala Road — for the harassment caused by loss of luggage.

The baggage-loss episode took place almost 10 years ago at Bangalore airport, where the south Calcutta-based businessman had gone on tour.

Jet Airways got away with a mild compensation rap — a far cry from the Rs 84,353 that the Calcutta District Forum Unit-1 had earlier decreed — as the state commission maintained that the airport authorities were equally responsible for luggage safety at the terminal and “the complainant did not suffer any quantified loss”. The commission also termed the compensation fixed by the district forum as “disproportionately high” and slashed it to Rs 5,000.

On May 19, 1998, the suitcase of P.R. Vharech had gone missing from the conveyor belt at Bangalore airport on his arrival by Jet Airways flight 9W511 from Calcutta. It was later discovered that a co-passenger travelling with a similar-looking bag had picked up Vharech’s by mistake.

The suitcase contained vital business documents that Vharech needed for a conference he was attending in Mysore. “All efforts to locate the suitcase failed till the next day, when another passenger realised his mistake and returned it,” said the airline.

Vharech filed a complaint against the airline with Calcutta District Forum Unit-I, which directed Jet Airways to pay a compensation of Rs 84,000. The airline then appealed to the state commission.

“It is the responsibility of the airport security to ensure that luggage is not stolen or lost from conveyor belts,” stressed Kanu Gohen, the director-general of civil aviation.