Flight Delayed or Cancelled? Here Is the DGCA Compensation Indian Passengers Can Claim

What the DGCA Rules Actually Say

The Civil Aviation Requirements issued by the Directorate General of Civil Aviation, specifically CAR Section 3, Series M Part IV, set out enforceable passenger rights for every scheduled domestic flight in India. These are not voluntary service standards. They are regulatory obligations, and airlines that ignore them can face DGCA action. Most passengers never invoke them because the airlines do not advertise them and the boarding-gate chaos of a disrupted flight is not the moment most people think to ask for a written form.The rules cover three distinct situations: a flight delayed at origin, a flight cancelled before departure, and a passenger denied boarding on a confirmed ticket due to overbooking. Each situation has its own compensation structure, and conflating them is how passengers end up accepting a meal voucher when they were entitled to cash.