Air India Urination Case: Delhi High Court Directs DGCA To Constitute Appellate Committee To Hear Appeal Against ‘Unruly Passenger’ Tag

The Delhi High Court Thursday directed the Director General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) to constitute an appellate committee to hear the appeal of Shankar Mishra, accused in the Air India urination case, against the airline’s inquiry committee's order designating him as an “unruly passenger” and banning him from flying for four months.

Justice Prathiba M Singh permitted Mishra to file the appeal before the appellate committee within two weeks.

“The committee shall be constituted in two weeks. The hearing shall be held on April 20,” the court directed.

The court clarified that it has not expressed any opinion on the merits of the case against Mishra and disposed of his plea for constitution of the appellate committee for hearing his appeal.

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.

The counsel appearing for Ministry of Civil Aviation submitted before the court that the appellate committee was constituted in November 2018 with a former judge of the High Court as the chairperson and two other members.

The court was apprised that the Chairperson resigned on February 9. However, the other two members have given their consent to continue in the committee, the counsel said. It was further submitted that the Ministry is hopeful to constitute the appellate committee within two weeks.

“….since a hiatus is created due to non-existence of the Chairperson, the petitioner is permitted to file the appeal within two weeks,” the court said.

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

Mishra told the court that though he had written emails to the DGCA and the Ministry of Civil Aviation against the inquiry committee’s order, no appellate committee was 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 said.

Mishra had 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.

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

Citation: 2023 LiveLaw (Del) 261