SC rebukes petitioner over Air India crash plea, questions 'deep-rooted agenda'
Supreme Court dismisses plea on Air India Ahmedabad crash probe, questions petitioner’s motive and advises using RTI for information access.
A petitioner was severely chided by the Supreme Court on Wednesday (April 1) over his plea regarding the preliminary investigation report on the Air India plane crash in Ahmedabad last June, with the Chief Justice of India Surya Kant asking him what his "deep-rooted agenda" was.
A bench of the CJI, and Justices Joymalya Bagchi and Vipul M Pancholi also rejected the petitioner's plea that authorities be directed to treat his plea as a representation.
Challenge to Delhi HC order
The remarks were made during the hearing of the petitioner’s challenge to a February 25 order of the Delhi High Court rejecting his PIL seeking that information on the "complete sequence of events" leading to the crash be included in the preliminary investigation report.
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"What is your deep-rooted agenda? As if we don't understand the motive. The people who lost their lives, their family members are not filing (petitions), but you are filing," the CJI asked the petitioner’s counsel.
What Delhi HC had said
Before the Delhi High Court, the petitioner had asked that the preliminary findings of the Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau be “read down,” pressing for directions to revise the report so it would spell out a detailed timeline of the engine “flame out” and the shifting of fuel switches, including whether those changes were mechanical or manual.
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The court was not persuaded. It described the public interest litigation as “highly misconceived,” noting that the plea also sought an order compelling the bureau to place such material in the public domain.
SC suggests RTI route
The bench pointed instead to the Right to Information framework, saying the petitioner had other avenues available. “Such prayer in our considered opinion cannot be granted,” the court said, adding that any information deemed appropriate under the RTI Act would be disclosed through that route.
On June 12 last year, Air India flight AI 171, a Boeing 787-8 bound for London Gatwick, went down moments after departing from Ahmedabad’s Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel International Airport, crashing into a medical college hostel complex. The aircraft caught fire on impact. Of the 242 people onboard, 241 were killed, along with 19 individuals on the ground.
(With agency inputs)