Supreme Court allows middle seat booking in Air India flights for next 10 days

The Supreme Court on Monday allowed national carrier Air India to operate international flight service with middle seat booking. The court was hearing a petition filed by the Centre and Air India after Bombay High Court questioned why the airline was not keeping the middle seats vacant in international flights.

“Air India shall be allowed to operate non-scheduled foreign flights with middle seats booking for next 10 days,” Chief Justice of India (CJI) Sharad Arvind Bobde said.

After 10 days, the Supreme Court said the national carrier will have to follow the Bombay High Court’s order directing it to follow the Directorate General of Civil Aviation’s March 23 circular that said the middle-row seats will have to be kept vacant. The top court’s direction came on the Centre and Air India’s appeal against the 22 May order of the Bombay High Court.

On behalf of the Centre and the Air India, Solicitor General Tushar Mehta said testing and quarantine are the best ways, and not keeping a middle-row seat empty, to mitigate the effects of the virus. He told the court a decision to book the seats was taken after health and aviation experts gave an opinion on it. Mehta also said the airline did not have enough aircraft for rescue flights.

The Bombay high court, while hearing a petition of a pilot, had sought a response from the Air India and the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA).

The pilot, Deven Kanani, in his plea claimed a circular issued by the Government of India on March 23 laid some conditions to prevent the spread of Covid-19 while bringing back Indians stranded abroad due to the pandemic.

However, the condition pertaining to keeping the middle seat between two passengers empty was not being followed by the Air India, he said in the plea.

Kanani submitted photographs of an Air India flight operated between San Francisco and Mumbai where all seats were occupied.

Air India counsel Abhinav Chandrachud opposed the plea and told the high court that the circular of March 23 has been now superseded with a new circular issued by the Indian government on May 22, while permitting domestic flights to operate from May 25. The new circular does not say the middle seat needs to be kept empty, Chandrachud told the court.