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Informist, Friday, Aug. 8, 2025

 

NEW DELHI – The Supreme Court on Friday rejected a public interest litigation seeking an independent probe into Air India's safety check, maintenance procedures and other related aspects. "Why target Air India only which recently witnessed an unfortunate tragedy? If you want some regulatory mechanism in place, then why did you not make other airlines as party in your petition? Why only Air India?", asked a bench of Justices Surya Kant and Joymalya Bagchi. The petition came after an Air India flight from Ahmedabad to Gatwick in London crashed seconds after takeoff on Jun. 23, killing 241 passengers and the crew. 

 

The petitioner, Narendra Kumar Goswami, a lawyer, should not be identified with a corporate war with an airline which was unfortunately run down because of such a big tragedy. "You now want so many things against (the airline)... Why not against other airlines? Don't give an impression that you've lent your services to someone, some rival", remarked the apex court.

 

The apex court asked Goswami to move an appropriate forum in case of any grievance. "We also travel every week and know what the status is. There was a tragedy, a very unfortunate one. This is not a time to run down an airline," said the bench.

 

Goswami had sought the apex court to direct the constitution of an independent committee to examine Air India's safety practice, maintenance procedure and operational protocols. Further, Goswami sought a comprehensive safety audit of the airline's entire fleet by an international aviation safety agency. 

 

The petitioner prayed that the Directorate General of Civil Aviation should implement a transparent, publicly accessible reporting system for all aviation safety incidents, including a database. In addition, the petitioner sought a time-bound report from the Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau regarding the recent Ahmedabad plane crash.  End

 

Reported by Surya Tripathi

Edited by Deepshikha Bhardwaj

 

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