The Delhi High Court on Wednesday issued a notice to debt-ridden private carrier Jet Airways on a plea seeking that airfares of passengers affected by the shutdown of the airline’s services be refunded, Bar and Bench reported. Jet Airways had announced on April 17 that it was temporarily suspending all flights, citing lack of funding.

The court also sought a response to the plea from the Directorate General of Civil Aviation and the Ministry of Civil Aviation, ANI reported. It said the matter will be heard next on May 16.

The petition, filed by activist Bejon Kumar Misra, said that the sudden suspension of services by Jet Airways had resulted in a major crisis for the passengers, who were not informed about it earlier. “It is common knowledge that all competitor airlines have exorbitantly increased their airfares and the toothless and vulnerable consumers are constrained to suffer not only in terms of money, but also in terms of mental harassment of unprecedented scale,” the plea said. It added that more than Rs 360 crore of the passengers’ money was under threat because of its refund of ticket value.

On April 24, the court had observed that the plea was filed only for publicity. A bench of Chief Justice Rajendra Menon and Justice AJ Bhambhani had said that the petition had been shared in the media even before it came up for hearing.