The 72-year-old woman, who allegedly faced a urinating incident on an Air India flight, has approached the Supreme Court seeking a direction to the Directorate General of Civil Aviation to develop an explicit zero-tolerance policy with respect to "unruly/disruptive behaviour".
She also sought a direction for mandatory reporting of such incidents to the regulator and law enforcement, failing which, action would be taken against the airlines in all cases.
The victim contended there has been a sharp rise in unruly passenger behaviour globally as the International Air Transport Association (IATA) published a report in December 2022 urging governments to take practical approaches regarding identifying and handling unruly passengers.
Her plea contended that the Civil Aviation Requirements of May 2017 (CAR) of the DGCA should consider "drunkenness" or "inebriation" on its own to be considered unruly/ disruptive behaviour on an aircraft.
The plea settled by senior advocate Gopal Sankaranarayana also said the Union government and the DGCA should solicit the Standard Operating Procedures and the Operations Manuals as required under the law from the airline companies laying down procedures for handling unruly/disruptive behaviour in airports and on aircraft, and to ensure that those are in compliance with the DGCA norm.
She also said that the authorities should frame the guidelines on alcohol policy on international flights of Indian carriers to protect passengers and airline staff, including setting limits on the quantity of alcohol served, without any discrimination based on the class of travel.
Her plea also said the DGCA should amend its Passenger Charter to include the rights and recourse for passengers, subject to any sort of abuse by staff passengers, which should include redressal mechanisms for victims via an Ombudsman and also parameters of compensation.
"There are currently no transparent mechanisms for recourse or system of fines and penalties when an airline is negligent or complicit when there is an incident of unruly disruptive behaviour," she said.
The plea also said News Broadcasters and Digital Association and all news and media entities and agencies should desist from reporting on the criminal proceedings involving the perpetrator and the petitioner in her case in the FIR lodged January 4, 2023, in order to prevent further shaming and embarrassment for her and the perpetrator.
Following the incident on November 26, 2022, wherein accused Shankar Mishra had allegedly urinated on the elderly passenger, he was arrested from Bengaluru on January 6.
He was also sacked from the post of Vice President of American financial services company Wells Fargo, which called the allegations against him “deeply disturbing”.