Air India Urination Case: Accused Moves Delhi High Court For Constitution Of Appellate Committee To Hear His Appeal Against ‘Unruly Passenger’ Tag

Shankar Mishra, accused in the Air India urination case, has approached the Delhi High Court for constitution of an appellate committee to hear his appeal against the order passed by airline’s inquiry committee designating him as an “unruly passenger” and banning him from flying for four months.

Mishra, who was granted bail by a trial court in January, is accused of urinating on an elderly woman on a New York-Delhi Air India flight in November last year.

As the counsel representing Director General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) submitted before Justice Prathiba M Singh that the appellate committee is already in place, the court asked the counsel to place the constitution of the committee before it within one week.

The matter will now be heard on March 23.

In the petition moved through Advocates Akshat Bajpai, Ishanee Sharma, Shobhit Trehan, Renuka Parmananda, Mishra has submitted that the order passed by the inquiry committee suffers from “factual and legal infirmities” and completely misunderstands the physical layout of the aircraft.

It is Mishra’s case that although he has written emails to the DGCA and the Ministry of Civil Aviation against the inquiry committee’s order, no appellate committee has been constituted for hearing his appeal.

“It is an established position of law that a statutory right of appeal is a vested right and the non-constitution of the Appellate Committee by the Ministry of Civil Aviation is eroding the Petitioner’s right to exhaust all his remedies available unto him as per the due procedure established by law. As such, the Ministry of Civil Aviation’s inaction is directly infringing the Petitioner’s rights under Article 21 of the Constitution,” the plea states.

Mishra has sought a direction for expeditiously constituting an appellate committee in accordance with Rule 8.3 of “Civil Aviation Requirements for Unruly Passengers” issued in September 2019.

The plea also seeks a direction that the 60 days period to prefer an appeal, as per the Requirements, shall begin from the date of the notification of constitution of the Appellate Committee.

Title: Shankar Shyamnaval Mishra v. Union of India & Ors.