DGCA pulled up over comedian’s flight ban
NEW DELHI: The Delhi High Court (HC) on Tuesday said the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) should not have put out a tweet certifying the action of airlines, including IndiGo, which imposed a six-month flying ban without an inquiry on stand-up comedian Kunal Kamra for allegedly heckling journalist, Arnab Goswami, on a flight.
The HC has also asked the aviation regulator to confirm if the action of the airlines was in consonance with the Civil Aviation Requirements (CAR).
“Why did you [DGCA] give a certification on Twitter? Look at your tweet. You said the action by the other airlines was in compliance of the Civil Aviation Requirements (CAR). Not just IndiGo, you gave a certificate to the others also. You should withdraw your tweet,” Justice Navin Chawla told the DGCA.
“You have to satisfy this court that their action was in consonance with the CAR,” he said. The DGCA’s lawyer said she will take instructions on the query raised by the court and urged that the matter be listed for
Thursday, to which the judge agreed.
The court said that once Kamra lodged a complaint before the DGCA claiming violation of CAR by the airlines, the regulator cannot say it will not look into it.
The comedian, through his counsel Prashant Sivarajan, Vivek Tankha and Gopal Sankarnarayanan, has claimed that all the airlines imposed the flying ban on him without there being a complaint as required under the CAR.
In his plea, Kamra has said the complaint, as per CAR, has to be made by the pilot of the flight, but in this case it was not done and despite that IndiGo constituted an internal committee, which is scheduled to have a final hearing of the matter on Wednesday.