Delhi High Court dismisses 2 PILs seeking guidelines for capping fares for private airlines

The Delhi High Court, however, said that the interest of the passengers is to be safeguarded by the DGCA

The bench said that the interest of the passengers is to be safeguarded by the DGCA. (File Photo)

The Delhi High Court has recently dismissed two public interest litigation (PIL) petitions seeking the issuance of guidelines for capping airfares to prevent private airlines from “charging arbitrary, irrational and exorbitant airfares for the flights”.

A division bench of Acting Chief Justice Manmohan and Justice Manmeet Pritam Singh Arora in its May 15 order observed that the petitions raised grievances “with respect to isolated incidents of spiked airfares” and had not substantiated the same with any “corroborative documents”.

“The Petitioners have relied upon the incidents reported in the newspaper articles, however, in the absence of any documents evidencing the claim of over-charging, which could prove a violation of the applicable Aircraft Rules, 1937, there is no reason to conclude that Respondent-DGCA (Directorate General of Civil Aviation) has failed to check the violation of the statutory rules by the airlines,” the bench said.

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It further observed that the aviation sector being a capital-intensive sector, “regulated free play given to the airlines to implement dynamic pricing of the fares for each flight appears to be in conformity with the norms followed worldwide…”

The bench, however, said that the interest of the passengers is to be safeguarded by the DGCA, which is empowered to check against “sudden price surge if it is contrary to the declared highest tariff of the airline in the concerned sector”.

“In an appropriate matter, upon proof of payment of the high tariff charge the aggrieved passenger would have a right to approach the appropriate forum for action against the erring airline(s). But we are not inclined to direct DGCA to fix and regulate the airfares of the private airlines as a matter of norm. The legislature has made a conscious shift from a regulated regime to deregulation in the year 1994, when it repealed the Air Corporation Act, 1953, and the Petitioners have not made out any grounds for this Court to interfere in this policy change adopted by the legislature,” the bench underscored while dismissing the petitions.

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