The Delhi High Court on Thursday ordered the Director General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) to form an appellate committee within two weeks to hear Shankar Mishra’s appeal against the order designating him as an ‘unruly passenger’ and prohibiting him from flying for four months.
Justice Prathiba M Singh passed the ruling after the Court was told by the DGCA that the appellate committee currently lacks a chairperson at present.
According to the counsel, the appeal committee was in operation until February 9 of this year, when the chairperson (a retired judge of the Delhi High Court) had resigned.
As a result, Justice Singh requested that the DGCA form the appellate committee within two weeks and convene its first hearing to hear Mishra’s case on April 20.
The Bench further asked Mishra to file his appeal within the time frame specified.
Mishra was detained on January 7 on suspicion of urinating on a 70-year-old woman while drunk on an Air India flight from Delhi to Bengaluru in November last year. He was later fired from his job at Wells Fargo, which stated that the allegations against him were “deeply disturbing.”
Mishra, on the other hand, has maintained that the claims against him are untrue and baseless. On January 31, he was granted bail by Delhi’s Patiala House Court.
Mishra alleged in his petition, which was filed through Advocates Akshat Bajpai, Ishanee Sharma, Shobhit Trehan, and Renuka Parmananda, that the lady filed a complaint against him on the Airsewa grievance portal on December 20, 2022.
In response to the complaint, Air India formed an internal investigation committee. On January 18, 2023, the committee issued an order labeling him an “unruly passenger” and prohibiting him from flying for four months.
According to the petition, paragraph 8.5 of the Civil Aviation Requirements (CAR) for dealing with unruly passengers states that a person who is dissatisfied with an order of the inquiry committee may file an appeal within 60 days of the order before an appellate committee constituted by the Ministry of Civil Aviation.
“The Petitioner, being aggrieved by the order dated 18.01.2023, seeks to prefer an appeal against the said order and has written emails to the DGCA [Director General of Civil Aviation] on 19.01.2023 and to the Ministry of Civil Aviation on 20.02.2023, 27.02.2023, and 06.03.2023. However, no such committee has been formed as of the filing date of this Writ Petition,” the petition read.
The petition further stated that it is a well-established legal position that a statutory right of appeal is a vested right, and that the non-constitution of the appellate committee by the Ministry of Civil Aviation is degrading his right to exhaust all available remedies.
“As a result, the Ministry of Civil Aviation’s inaction directly violates the Petitioner’s rights under Article 21 of the Constitution,” the petition argued.
