(1.) This is a Public Interest Litigation filed by an advocate enrolled in the rolls of the Bar Council of Kerala in 2001. The issues raised by the petitioner are on the basis of the air crash that occurred at the Calicut International Airport recently, on 7th August 2020. Respondent No. 1 is the Ministry of Civil Aviation, who has supervisory control over respondents 2, 3, 4 and 5, who are Airport Authority of India, New Delhi, Directorate General of Civil Aviation, New Delhi, Air India Express Limited, Mumbai, Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau, New Delhi. Respondent No. 6 is the State of Kerala. But, however, the petitioner has made the Station House Officer, Karipur Police Station, Malappuram to represent the State, who is not a proper party, in view of the provisions of the Kerala High Court Rules, 1971, and the State is always to be represented by the Secretary of the concerned Department or the Chief Secretary. The 7th respondent is the Central Bureau of Investigation. The sum and substance of the case put forth by the petitioner is that overshooting runways is the most common type of air accidents, but nowhere in the world did such an accident cause such a high number of fatalities.
(2.) According to the petitioner, after years of research in the maze of aviation regulations and operations, the petitioner found that there was criminal culpability on the part of respondent No.2 with full backing of respondent Nos. 1 and 3. It is stated that the petitioner, thereafter, took up the issue of aviation safety in various High Courts and the petitioner has filed three writ petitions before this Court and one of them was disposed of while the other two are pending, out of which one is more specific to the Calicut Airport i.e., W.P.(C) No. 21085 of 2016 .
(3.) The petitioner claims that since he has filed various writ petitions before various courts in regard to the aviation safety, this Public Interest Litigation is filed with all bona fides with larger public interest and the petitioner has no personal interest. Therefore, it is submitted that the intention of the petitioner is to introduce the subject of aviation and its complexities, draw a picture of each component and how critical state they are in, then move to the specific issues with the Calicut Airport and the various warnings and specific information given to the State Authorities, their wilful and deliberate violations of Air Regulations and explain the importance of independent and impartial investigation by a Court of Inquiry as against the Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau (AAIB) investigation and the need for CBI to investigate the criminality and why the Calicut Airport needs to be shut down with immediate effect until the Airport complies with Air Safety Regulations.