Civil Aviation Ministry on Friday announced draft rules for country’s first 'no-fly list' as per which air passenger will be barred from flying on any domestic airline for a period of two year or more for life threatening behaviour.
“We propose to bring out a national no fly list. It is better to do that by a central mechanism under DGCA than leave it to airlines,” said Civil Aviation Secretary RN Chaubey while announcing Civil Aviation Requirements (CAR) draft policy.
“We have put passengers’ behavour into three level. level 1 will be disruptive behaviour like physical gestures etc. for which there is a suspension for 3 months. level 2 will include physical disruptive behaviour like pushing, kicking, sexual harassment etc. where punishment is a suspension for 6 months while level 3 offences will include life-threatening behaviour where passengers can be suspended for up to 2 years or more,” he added.
While a particular airline can ban a passenger from flying immediately after an offence, the passenger will not come on the national no-fly list immediately.
“These provisions are airline specific and not mandatory for other airline. As regards repeat offenders, the person will be banned for twice the period of previous ban,” said Choubey
Actually, Civil Aviation Ministry was forced to act after Shiv Sena MP Ravindra Gaikwad assaulted an Air India staff following which he was banned by the national carrier and subsequently by all national airlines. Government found some loopholes in the existing Civil Aviation Rules and primarily to redress those came up with a draft policy to have a balanced approach on the problem.
“We found out that current CAR didn’t address two primary concerns-it didn’t provide for any timeframework for ban on passenger and there was no provision of appeal. So, we have come up with this draft rules which is up for public suggestion now,” said Minister of State for Civil Aviation Jayant Sinha.
The Government is also examining ways to track passengers recognised as unruly through an identity document.
"We will be identifying passengers on the basis of identity verification, either through an Aadhar card or passport. This will ensure that we have a secure way of identifying a passenger and linking their secure authentication to their PNR," added Sinha.
Whenever a complaint is received from the crew, the concerned airline have to refer it to a quasi-judicial committee headed by a retired district and sessions judge with a representative each of another airline and passenger association.
“This panel has to take a decision within ten days. If any party is aggrieved with the decision, then they approach a Government-appointed panel headed by a retired High Court judge, representative of airline who is not below the rank of Vice President and representative of passenger association or consumer forum,” added Choubey.
The no-fly list would also consists of persons identified by the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) as national security threats.
When asked whether the Government will intervene to get a ban imposed by domestic carriers as in Ravindra Gaikwad's case, Minister for Civil Aviation, Gajapathi Raju indicated that the incident involving the MP cannot be treated as a benchmark.
"Keep Professor Gaikwad out of it. Not all Indians are Professor Gaikwads," Raju said.
While the no-fly list is applicable to domestic carriers flying to/from/within India, Choubey said there was nothing to stop international airlines from implementing it.
The draft is an amendment to the existing Civil Aviation Requirement, a set of rules on unruly and disruptive passengers.
These are being placed in the public domain for 30 days for comments and feedback from stakeholders following which the Government will come out with final amendments by June 30.