Identify And Take Immediate Steps For Removal Of Encroachments From Lands Meant For Airport: Patna High Court To DMs

In a significant order the Patna High Court has directed all the District Magistrates (DMs) in the State to identify encroachments existing over the lands meant for total 31 airstrips and airports of Bihar and take immediate steps for their removal.

A division bench of acting Chief Justice Chakradhari Sharan Singh and Justice Madhuresh Prasad while hearing a batch of 30 PILs filed by Nikhil Singh, Rajiv Ranjan Singh and other persons noted “As would be evident from the chart supplied by Dr.K.N. Singh, learned Additional Solicitor General of India, most of the Airports/Airstrips in the State of Bihar are non-functional.It has emerged during the course of hearing of these matters that substantial unauthorised encroachments have been caused by the local inhabitants over the lands belonging to the StateGovernment/AAI/MoD meant for the Airports/Airstrips in theState of Bihar. It has also emerged that such lands are not properly maintained and have remained uncared.”

It thus directed the DMs, the nodal officers of Union Civil Aviation Ministry and Airport Authority of India (AAI), to take a comprehensive stand for maintenance and protection of all the 31 airstrips and airports in the state.

Dr. K.N. Singh, the Additional Solicitor General Of India, who was arguing on behalf of Union of India, submitted a list of Airports/Airstrips in the State of Bihar, from which it transpired that out of 31 Airports/Airstrips in the State of Bihar, 21 are owned by the State Government, 5 belong to the Ministry of Defence and 7 including 2 Civil Enclaves belong to Airport Authority of India.

SUBMISSIONS MADE BY ADDITIONAL SOLICITOR GENERAL OF INDIA:

The Additional Solicitor General made the following submissions:

1. As on date, there are three out of 31 Airports/ Civil Enclaves which are operational for civil flights in the State of Bihar, all belonging to the AAI.
2. The Airports/CivilEnclaves under the control of AAI are maintained by AAI. The Non-operational airports at Raxaul, Muzaffarpur and Jogbani come under the control of AAI.
3. AAI has built boundary walls at Raxaul, Muzaffarpur, and Jogbani airports and AAI officials visit them occasionally for maintenance. The district administration provides assistance if needed.
4. For the development of these three airports, AAI made requests to the State Government to provide lands, which include 121 acres for Raxaul and 475 acres for Muzaffarpur.
5. AAI plans to develop a Civil Enclave at Purnea Indian Air Force Airport, and 21 state government airports and three AAI airports have been included in UDAN for development and operationalization.
6. No airlines have bid for airports other than Darbhanga, Gaya, and Patna. The state government is required to sponsor routes for unserved and underserved airports under UDAN 4.0 and 4.1, but they haven't sponsored any routes yet.
7. Upon successful bidding under UDAN, if theState Government desires the airports to be maintained by theAAI, the State Government may sign Operation andMaintenance (O & M) agreement with the AAI.

SUBMISSIONS MADE BY ADVOCATE GENERAL, BIHAR

1. The State Government is focusing its efforts to develop airports at Patna, Bihta, Gaya, Darbhanga and Purnia.
2. Patna International Airport serves ten districts, Gaya Airport nine, and Purnea Airport serves nine. Darbhanga Airport serves eleven districts. The UDAN scheme includes eight airports, but only two, Darbhanga and Gaya, are currently operational, and no airline operator has expressed interest in the other six.
3. If a proposal comes from any airline(s),the State will consider for development of such an airport(s) also.

At the outset, the Bench observed that whether a particular place should have an airport or not, is a matter exclusively within the domain of the executive and High Court exercising writ jurisdiction under Article 226 of the Constitution of India does not normally interfere in such matters.

However, since the State Government itself submitted that there is proposal to have an airport at Purnea to cater the need of nine major districts of the State of Bihar, the Court asked the State to inform it as to what steps have so far been taken and what steps can be taken in future for having an airport at Purnea.

Case Title: Nikhil Singh Vs. Union of India & Ors. Civil Writ Jurisdiction Case No.1784 of 2023

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