Madras High Court Directs Aviation Ministry To Decide Representation Seeking Flight Safety Announcements To Be Made In Local Languages

The Madras High Court on Monday disposed of a PIL seeking directions to be issued to the Centre to ensure that the cabin crew of Indian airline operators make announcements pertaining to 'In Flight Safety Instructions' in local languages of the departure city and the destination city, apart from English and Hindi. 

A Bench comprising Chief Justice Sanjib Banerjee and Justice PD Audikesavalu directed the Civil Aviation Ministry to decide the matter on a representation to be made by the Petitioner. 

The Bench took note of the grievance raised that in the absence of safety instructions being made in local languages, a large number of passengers are unable to follow the instructions and accordingly take steps to ensure their personal safety. 

The counsel appearing for the petitioner B. Ramkumar Adityan apprised the Court that such announcements regarding safety instructions could be made through a 'recorded voice' in various vernacular languages to ensure that heavy expenditure to accommodate such a facility is not incurred. 

The petitioner further contended that 'flight safety instructions' cards must be printed in various regional languages such as Assamese, Bengali, Bodo, Dogri, Gujarati, Kannada, Kashmiri, Marathi, Nepali, Punjabi, Tamil and other languages. 

Accordingly, the Court directed, 

"The writ petitioner is left free to address the Secretary, Civil Aviation Ministry with a detailed representation. It is for the Ministry to consider appropriate action regarding the airline operators."

The Bench instructed such a detailed representation to be made to the Civil Aviation Ministry within 4 weeks. Thereafter, the Secretary of the Civil Aviation Ministry was directed to provide a reasoned reply within 8 weeks. 

The matter was disposed of accordingly. 

Case Title: B. Ramkumar Adityan v. Secretary