Top Court Judge Shares Flight Ordeal In Peegate Hearing

New Delhi: Hearing a petition for tough rules to tackle unruly fliers, a Supreme Court judge today narrated his recent encounter with drunk co-passengers. Justice KV Viswanathan said he and Justice Surya Kant were recently on a flight on which two male passengers were “totally drunk”. “Recently when me and Justice Surya Kant were flying. There were two totally drunk male passengers. One locked himself in the toilet and slept, other went out with a vomit bag. (There was an) all-women crew, so they did not open the toilet. So one of my co-passengers had to,” the judge said.

Justice Viswanathan said “something creative” must be done to address this issue. “Maybe strategic seating or something.” The matter has been adjourned by eight weeks and Additional Solicitor General Aiswarya Bhati was asked to instruct authorities concerned to examine and modify guidelines to manage unruly fliers in line with global practices.

The bench of Justice BR Gavai and Justice KV Viswanathan was hearing a petition by an elderly woman who suffered a harrowing experience during a New York-New Delhi flight last year when a drunk passenger allegedly urinated on her. The petitioner has demanded a Standard Operation Procedure (SOP) to deal with such fliers.

The 72-year-old has said in her petition that she decided to approach the court because Air India and the Directorate General of Civil Aviation failed to treat her with care and responsibility after the incident.

“In addition, the wide-ranging national press reportage full of conjecture and surmises has severely undermined the petitioner’s rights as a victim under Article 21 of the Constitution, and in fairness has also affected the rights of the accused as well. Their rights to a free and fair trial have also been substantially affected due to a selective leaking of the ‘AIR SEWA’ complaint of the petitioner, the FIR and selective witness statements being released to the media to match specific narratives,” the petition said. It said an absence of clear guidelines for media outlets on what requires reporting, whether they ought to make conjectures where matters are sub-judice, and the impact of media coverage based on unverified statements end up impacting the victim and the accused.

The petitioner further said her intentions were inspired and motivated in the interest of the general public and are a sincere attempt to set up a framework within the airline industry so that such incidents are prevented, and if they do occur, they are dealt with in a manner that does not cause additional trauma to the passengers.