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Air India can operate flights with the middle seats occupied only for the next 10 days, the court said.
New Delhi:
Special international flights for repatriation of Indians must have middle seats vacant, the Supreme Court said today, commenting that it was “common sense” that social distancing is important as a precaution against coronavirus. Air India can operate flights with the middle seats occupied only for the next 10 days, the court said.
The Supreme Court of the comments, but only on international flights, they also raise questions about the internal operation of which restarts the day with all the seats occupied.
“It is common sense that to maintain the social distance is important. On the outside, there must be a social distancing of at least six feet, what happens in the interior of the aircraft,” Chief Justice SA Bobde said Air India, which has been operating the “Vande Bharat flights” to bring back the Indians stranded abroad due to virus stops.
In the name of the national airline and the government, the Solicitor General Tushar Mehta had said that the best practice is a test, and quarantine, “not seat of the difference.”
Mr Mehta said that the decision not to have vacant middle seat was taken following a meeting held with the experts.
“How can you say that it’s not going to affect the passengers? Is that the virus is known that is in the plane and is not supposed to infect? The transmission will be there if you are sitting next to each other,” the Chief Justice said.
When told by the government that the booking is done until 16th of June, the court said: “For the next dates, to exhaust all the reserves and fly in the center of the seats. After that, do not go to anyone in the center of the seats.”
The court also said that the government could change its rules, while the case was underway, giving decision-makers a way of reworking their guidelines on flights.
Last week, the Minister of Civil Aviation Hardeep Singh Puri had ruled out the possibility of keeping the middle seats vacant for domestic flights, which resumed today, pointing out that the air fares will shoot up.
A pilot of Air India, Deven with yogesh Kanani, had approached the Bombay high Court to say a circular of the Directorate General of Civil Aviation on the 23rd of March to keep the middle seat vacant was not being followed by Air India for its special flights from 7 May to bring you back to the Indians.
Air India had told the High Court that the DGCA order has been superseded. The High Court passed an interim order against centre-of-sale of seats on flights.
Air India and the government requested an urgent meeting of the Supreme Court, which heard the case today, the feast of the ‘ id holiday. The Supreme Court has asked the High Court to decide the case on the 2nd of June.
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