New Delhi: The Delhi High Court today allowed the Directorate General of Civil Aviation to go ahead with its decision take over ground handling services from private airlines at airports across the country.
Dismissing a petition filed by private airlines challenging the DGCA's decision, a division bench of Chief Justice Dipak Misra and Justice Manmohan today said the alteration in the DGCA's rule was not unjust and illegal.
"We perceive no merit in the writ petition and accordingly the writ petition and all the interim applications stand dismissed," the court said.
Accepting the centre's argument that the decision was taken on security reasons as the safety and security of general public is paramount, the court rejected the contention of the airlines that security facet has been introduced to curtail their commercial interests.
Earlier, the bench had directed the airlines to restrain their ground handling staff from 13 security-related functions including access to aircraft, screening of baggages and aircraft security search.
The Director General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) had through a circular on June, 2010, prohibited the airlines to provide groundhandling services where there is no passenger interface, citing security reasons.
Filing a petition, the Federation of Indian Airlines, an apex body, challenged the government's decision to implement the groundhandling policy from January this year.
04/03/11 Outlook
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