Budget airline carrier SpiceJet was fined Rs10 lakh by the Supreme Court for the mental agony and harassment caused to a disabled rights activist who was made to deboard from the plane owing to her disability.
Jeeja Ghosh, a distinguished social rights activist, suffering from cerebral palsy, was on the SpiceJet flight from Kolkata to Goa on February 19, 2012. After she got seated, the flight crew asked her to step down as she did not disclose on the ticket that she suffered the disability of cerebral palsy in which movement of muscle gets reduced. She kept pleading with the airline staff that she had a conference to attend in Goa but to no avail.
The airline, replying to Ghosh’s petition, justified the action claiming that she had to be deboarded since she was frothing blood from her mouth. It was in her interest, she was deboarded, the airline argued. Ghosh denied it and the bench of Justices AK Sikri and RK Agrawal disbelieved it as there was nothing to show that any medical doctor attended her or even her consent was sought before she was asked to deboard. This was in clear violation of Civil Aviation Rules 2008 that casts a duty on airline not to offload a disabled person.
The Bench held the action of the airline to be callous and directed it to pay a compensation of Rs10 lakh to Ghosh within two months. The Court felt that the problem emanated from a “lack of sensitivity on part of the airline and society in general towards disabled persons who do not require pity but equal social rights as any other citizen.
To ensure such instances are averted for future, the Court directed the Centre to fine tune the Civil Aviation Rules 2008. Ghosh made certain suggestions, many of which were addressed by the Centre in the revised CAR Guidelines issued in 2014.
“A little care, a little sensitivity and a little positive attitude on the part of the officials of the airlines would not have resulted in the trauma, pain and suffering that Jeeja Ghosh had to undergo. This has resulted in violation of her human dignity and, thus, her fundamental right,” the Bench said.