The Supreme Court on Tuesday called for creative ways to deal with unruly air passengers, while directing the Centre and Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) to frame more comprehensive guidelines to control unruly air passengers guidelines in accordance with the international norms.and observed “something creative” had to be done. A Bench  of Justices B R Gavai and KV Viswanathan was hearing a plea filed by a 73-year-old woman, on whom a male co-passenger allegedly urinated in an inebriated condition on board an Air India flight in November, 2022.

Interestingly, during the hearing, Justice Viswanathan recalled an incident involving drunk passengers on a flight while travelling with another Supreme Court judge, Justice Surya Kant . “We had a recent experience during air travel. Two male passengers were fully drunk. One went to the washroom and slept off. The other one, who was outside and had a bag to vomit. The crew was all women. For 30 to 35 minutes no one could open the door. The crew then requested my co-passenger to open the door and take him out to the seat. It was a 2.40 hours flight,” the judge revealed.

Justice Viswanathan, who was on a Bench with Justice BR Gavai, hearing the plea, asked Solicitor General Aishwarya Bhati to instruct the authorities concerned to examine and suitably modify the existing guidelines on unruly passengers, in line with the international norms.

The judge remarked something creative needed to be done. Advocates Rahul Narayan, Tanya Srivastava, and Harshita Malik appeared for the petitioner.

The SC in May, 2023, issued notices to the Centre, Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) and all airlines, including Air India, on the woman’s plea.  During the hearing, the woman’s counsel submitted the DGCA filed a reply stating everything was in place but the petitioner had suggestions that could be incorporated.

Bhati, representing the Centre, informed the Bench  that an affidavit was filed and guidelines and circulars were notified for controlling unruly passengers. The woman filed a PIL in March, 2023, saying she was constrained to moved the SC as Air India and the DGCA failed to treat her with care and responsibility after the unpleasant experience. The woman referred to seven instances of passenger misconduct on board between 2014 and 2023, alleging they were not dealt with properly by the airline concerned.

The PIL sought a direction to the Centre and the DGCA to ensure that civil aviation requirements and norms adhered to the highest standards laid down internationally. The absence of clear guidelines for media outlets on what requires reporting, whether they ought to make conjectures when matters are sub-judice, and the impact of media coverage based on unverified statements end up impacting the victim as well as the accused, it added.

A fellow passenger who was in an inebriated state had urinated on the petitioner during an international flight on November 26, 2022. The incident was brought to light after the woman’s letter to the Chairperson of the Tata Group made it to the media.

The accused, Shankar Mishra, was later arrested by the Delhi Police in Bengaluru. Wells Fargo, which was Mishra’s employer, subsequently released a statement that the allegations against him were “deeply disturbing”. He was dismissed from the job.