Court Pulls Up IndiGo, DGCA Over Kunal Kamra Ban, Asks Why Ground Him When Complaint Came Later

The Delhi High Court pulled up IndiGo Airlines for banning Kunal Kamra from its flights for six months after he heckled news anchor Arnab Goswami on a flight. Justice Navin Chawla asked the airline why it banned the standup comedian even before the airlines had received any formal complaint.

¡°Why bar him when the complaint comes to you later¡±? the judge asked.

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The development came in a petition filed by Kamara challenging the airline's decision to ground him for six months. Kamra alleged that the ban is a violation of his fundamental right under Article 21 of the Constitution, which guarantees ¡®protection of life¡¯ and ¡®personal liberty¡¯ to every individual.

Following the decision of IndiGo which banned Kamra without even a formal complaint by Goswami or the pilot-in-command as mandated by the DGCA rules, Aviation Minister in a tweet asked other airlines also to do the same.

State-run Air India and private carriers SpiceJet and GoAir acted on the minister tweet and banned Kamara until further notice. In his petition, Kamara had sought action against the airlines for taking the steps in violation of Civil Aviation Requirements.

"The DGCA should have looked into Kamra's complaint claiming airlines violated civil aviation rules by putting him on the no-fly list," the court noted.

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DGCA¡¯s lawyer, however, told the court that it does not have anything to do with this petition and none of the directions are in its jurisdiction and none of the prayers is applicable for DGCA.

According to the rules the pilot-in-command has to complain to the airline about the unruly passenger which will be further probed by an internal committee set up by the airline. It also specifies that until an internal probe by the airline is completed the passenger can be suspended for a maximum of 30 days.

However, Kamra who faces a level 1 charge which carries a maximum ban of three months was banned by IndiGo even before the inquiry is completed.

Days after IndiGo banned Kamra, the pilot in command of the flight on which the alteration happened wrote to the airline, questioning the decision and said that he did not even find Kamra's actions worth reporting as a Level 1 offence.

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Earlier, Kamra had issued a legal notice to the Airline asking it to revoke the suspension and tender unconditional apology in all leading newspapers as well as electronic media and on all of the social media platforms currently being operated by the Airlines and had demanded a compensation of Rs. 25,00,000 for the mental pain and agony suffered by him as well as losses incurred on account of cancellation of his scheduled shows and programmes.