Lagatar24 Desk
New Delhi, March 20: The victim in the Air India urination case has moved the Supreme Court seeking a direction to the Director General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) and airline companies to frame regulations to address incidents of passenger misconduct on board aircraft, and stressed the explicit zero-tolerance policy concerning ‘unruly/disruptive behaviour’, which could mandate reporting to it to the law enforcement, failing which action would be taken against airlines in all cases.
“Direct the Respondent No.2 (DGCA) that the Civil Aviation Requirements (CAR) dated May 2017 of the DGCA should consider ‘drunkenness’ or ‘inebriation’ on its own to be considered unruly/disruptive behaviour on an aircraft”, stated the plea.
Ministry of Civil Aviation and DGCA to solicit the SoPs and the Operations Manuals as required under the law from the airline companies laying down procedures for handling unruly/ disruptive behaviour in airports and on aircraft, and to ensure that the same complies with the DGCA norms, the plea added.
The plea said that the cabin crew ‘facilitated’ the handing over of her mobile phone number to the man for him to reimburse the cost of shoes, dry-cleaning, etc. She was made to sit on the very same seat that was wet and smelled of urine.
The petition said that her suffering was compounded when the crew ‘coerced her to enter into a settlement with the passenger who urinated on her’. She continues to deal with the trauma of the incident.
The petition addressed to Ministry and DGCA to ‘set guidelines on alcohol policy on international flights of Indian carriers to protect passengers and airline staff, including setting limits on the quantity of alcohol served, without any discrimination based on the class of travel’.
The petition referred to the statistics tabled in the Rajya Sabha on February 6, which show that only 63 unruly passengers were put on the `No Fly’ lists. The plea also highlighted how media reports on the incident concerning her were full of conjectures and surmises.
Notably, the accused Shankar Mishra was arrested from Bengaluru on January 6 for the incident of November 26, 2022. The Delhi Police lodged an FIR against Mishra under various sections of the IPC and section 23 of the Aircraft Act for urinating on a woman in the business class of the flight. Later, the accused was granted bail.
