The Supreme Court on Tuesday (November 26, 2024) asked the Director General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) to consider putting in place more comprehensive guidelines to deal with unruly passengers and for fixing accountability on flight crews.
The court even suggested DGCA to examine if senior citizens travelling by air could be strategically seated so that they would not fall victim to misbehaviour or be disturbed by others.
The order by a Bench of Justices B.R. Gavai and K.V. Viswanathan was based on a petition filed by a 72-year-old woman last year. The woman related her harrowing experience when a drunk passenger relieved himself on her during a New York-New Delhi Air India flight.
She has sought clear and zero tolerance guidelines for civil authorities and airlines.
Additional Solicitor General Aishwarya Bhati, appearing for the Union government and DGCA, said action was taken on this particular incident and other ones. Standard Operating Procedures, circulars and guidelines was already in place, including individually by airlines.
However, the court asked Ms. Bhati to take into consideration several suggestions made in the petition and consider if the guidelines need to be further modified. The court listed the case after eight weeks.
The petitioner, represented by senior advocate Gopal Sankaranarayanan, said Air India and DGCA had both failed to treat her with “care and responsibility” after the rowdy passenger allegedly urinated on her during the flight on November 26, 2022.
In fact, the woman had claimed the cabin crew “facilitated” the handing over of her mobile phone number to the man in order for him to “reimburse the cost of shoes, dry-cleaning, etc”. The petition said she was made to sit on the “very same seat that was wet and smelled of urine”. Her suffering was compounded when the crew “coerced her to enter into a settlement with the pass get who urinates on her”.
No Fly list
The petition, in an earlier hearing of the case in May last year, had referred to statistics tabled in the Parliament, which showed that only 63 unruly passengers were put in the ‘No Fly’ lists. The petition said there would be numerous more incidents with no action taken.
“With the world’s third highest air traffic, and with 132 airports, India needs to ensure that its passengers, both domestic and foreign can travel with a minimum of safety and security. Particularly with 150 million senior citizens forming a sizeable vulnerable group, positive steps need to be taken to make flying safe,” the petition had said.
The plea had also highlighted how media reports on the incident concerning her were “full of conjectures and surmises”.
She contended that these reports had “severely undermined her rights as a victim under Article 21, and in fairness, has also affected the rights of the accused as well”.
The petitioner had asked the court to consider how media reports based on conjectures may affect sub judice cases in the absence of clear guidelines. It had said media reportage of such incidents should be “postponed”.
Published - November 26, 2024 02:58 pm IST
