PIL seeks direction to stop operation of Spicejet Airline, refund of fair charges to passengers

New Delhi [India], July 17 (ANI): A Public Interest Litigation (PIL) has been moved in Delhi High Court seeking direction to the Centre and concerned authorities to stop the operation of Spicejet Airlines stating several incidents of technical glitches have taken place in its aircraft recently.
Raising security concern, the plea also sought direction to compensate the fair charges to passengers who have faced the threat of their life during the journey and had to face mental trauma of fear of death.
The petitioner Rahul Bhardwaj, a practising advocate and his four-year-old son have moved the petition seeking issuance of direction to the Ministry of Civil Aviation, DGCA and others to constitute a special fast track commission taking the decision on the feasibility of "Stop" of operation by Spicejet Airlines till all the security measures are not followed.
The petition is to be heard by the chief justice of the Delhi bench on Monday.
The plea alleged that the said airlines have violated the basic principles of rule of law which gives the protection, safety and security to the life, liberty, dignity and property of the passengers and gives the environment so that the passengers may lead their journey in a pleasant manner and their personal liberty and property may be protected and preserved in a healthy environment.
It also stated that the principles of natural justice, equity and good conscience demand that the respondents should be directed to constitute an independent special inquiry by aviation specialists to recommend all the measures where all the safety measures can be ensured for the passengers and citizens.
Recently the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) has told that, on average, 30 incidents daily take place but these hardly have any safety implications.
Most of them have no safety implications. On the contrary, they are sine qua non of a robust safety management system," said the DGCA official.
The comments assume significance on the back of similar incidents reported in the recent past in SpiceJet which has resulted in a lot of hue and cry. On a SpiceJet flight on July 5, SpiceJet aircraft returned back to Patna after take-off and suffered a bird hit.
SpiceJet CMD Ajay Singh recently in an exclusive interview with ANI said, "SpiceJet is running a safe airline for 15 years. The kind of incidents being talked about are trivial and happen on a daily basis in airlines. On average, 30 such incidents happen in airlines every day," Singh said. (ANI)