SC allows Air India to operate foreign flights with middle seats booking

New Delhi, May 25: The Supreme Court has pulled up DGCA India and Air India for allotting middle seats in international flights. It has said that the government should be worried more about health of citizens than the health of the airlines. The apex court, however, allowed the bookings till June 16 to exhaust.

The order has come on the day when domestic flight operations resumed in the country, after almost 2 months amid lockdown situation which was imposed in order to contain the spread of virus.

"Air India shall be allowed to operate non-scheduled foreign flights with middle seats booking for next 10 days," Chief Justice of India (CJI) Sharad Arvind Bobde said.

"You should be worried about health of citizens more than health of airlines," the court observed.

The court asked, "Why social distancing norms wasn't necessary in flights? Why centre seats should be booked for air travels?"

The Bombay high court, while hearing a petition of a pilot, had sought a response from the Air India and the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA).

The pilot, Deven Kanani, in his plea claimed a circular issued by the Government of India on March 23, 2020 laid some conditions to prevent the spread of Covid-19 while bringing back Indians stranded abroad due to the pandemic.

However, the condition pertaining to keeping the middle seat between two passengers empty was not being followed by the Air India, he said in the plea.

Kanani submitted photographs of an Air India flight operated between San Francisco and Mumbai where all seats were occupied.

Air India counsel Abhinav Chandrachud opposed the plea and told the high court that the circular of March 23 has been now superseded with a new circular issued by the Government of India on May 22, 2020 while permitting domestic flights to operate from May 25The new circular does not say the middle seat needs to be kept empty, Chandrachud told the court.

The bench directed Air India and DGCA to file affidavits clarifying their stand, and posted the petition for further hearing on June 2.