Bombay High Court notice sent to airlines over charging for first-row seats

Source – dnaindia.com

The Bombay High Court has issued notices to low-cost airlines Indigo and Jet Airways and the Director General of Civil Aviation (DGCA), seeking their response on a petition challenging their policy of charging extra cost for their front-row seats.

A division bench of Justices Shantanu Kemkar and GS Kulkarni on Sunday asked the airlines and the DGCA to file their replies within four weeks.

In her petition, advocate Yasmin Tavariya, a cancer survivor, described her own plight and that of disabled passengers in the back-row seats of airplanes.

“Low-cost airlines have scant regard for rules under the Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act, specifically tailored for the facilitation of services to be rendered to persons with disabilities and for the standards of accessibility for transportation, including facilities and services, to be provided by them,” Tavariya said in her petition.

Senior advocate Dinyar Madon pointed out to the court about the rules and circulars of the DGCA which made it mandatory for airlines to allot seats which would be convenient for disabled persons.

The plea stated that budget airlines are acting contrary to the very spirit of the statutory and constitutional provisions by being discriminative to passengers with disability and/or reduced mobility without any rational criteria, thus being against the very grain of fundamental rights and directive principles enshrined in the Constitution of India.

Narrating her hardship while flying by Indigo and Jet Airways en route to Bengaluru and back for attending a court hearing in the Karnataka High Court on September 12, Tavariya said she had undergone a surgery at the Breach Candy hospital just 10 days ago to remove a lump behind her knee. “At the time of booking tickets, the airlines were informed about my reduced mobility. However, I had to shell out Rs600 extra for a front-row seat. A person who was accompanying me to help me was allotted a seat in the back row,” the petition said.