NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Monday agreed to examine the plea of a 72-year-old woman, on whom a male co-passenger urinated on board an Air India flight in November last year, seeking a direction to the Centre, Directorate of General Civil Aviation (DGCA) and airlines to frame an SOP to deal with such incidents.
A bench of Chief Justice D Y Chandrachud and Justices P S Narasimha and J B Pardiwala took note of the plea of the woman and issued notices to the Centre, DGCA and all airlines, including Air India.
The top court also sought the assistance of Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, who was present in the case, in formulating the standard operating procedure (SOP) and fixed the plea for hearing after the summer vacation in July.
The 72-year-old woman, Hema Rajaraman, had filed a PIL in March saying she was constrained to approach the top court because Air India and the DGCA failed to treat her with care and responsibility after the incident.
The traumatised elderly woman had sought direction for the aviation regulator to include in the CAR (civil aviation requirements) an explicit zero-tolerance policy concerning “unruly/disruptive behaviour”, which would mandate reporting to it and to law enforcement, failing which action would be taken against the airlines in all cases.
On January 31, a Delhi court had granted bail to Shankar Mishra, accused of urinating on the woman co-passenger on the Air India flight from New York to Delhi.
The trial court had granted the relief to Mishra on a personal bond of Rs 1 lakh and a surety of the like amount.
It had also imposed various conditions on him, including that he will not tamper with evidence, influence any witnesses or contact them in any manner.
Mishra was also asked not to leave the country without the court’s prior permission and to join the investigation and trial as and when called by the investigating officer or the court concerned.
Mishra was arrested from Bengaluru on January 6 and sent to judicial custody by a court here on January 7.
He allegedly urinated on the woman in an intoxicated condition in the business class of the Air India flight on November 26 last year.
