Monday, February 18, 2019

SC refuses PIL seeking court-monitored probe into aircraft crashes of Indian armed forces

New Delhi: The Supreme Court Monday refused to entertain a PIL seeking court-monitored investigation into incidents of fighter plane crashes including the recent crash of Mirage-2000 trainer aircraft near Bengaluru in which two Indian Air Force (IAF) pilots were killed.
A bench comprising Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi and Justice Sanjiv Khanna said there cannot be a judicial inquiry into such mishappenings.
"The Supreme Court cannot undertake judicial enquiry into mishappenings involving fighter jets," the bench said.
"From which generation, this Mirage aircraft belongs," the bench asked petitioner lawyer Alakh Alok Srivastava.
As the lawyer couldn't respond, the apex court said, "The Mirage aircraft belongs to 3.5th generation of fighter jets" and added, "You don't know the factual things, but you need judicial enquiry".
The bench then dismissed the PIL saying, "We are not inclined to entertain this petition".
The petition had sought direction to the Centre to take steps to ensure that such aircraft crashes do not occur in the future.
The PIL was filed after Mirage-2000 trainer aircraft had crashed on February 1 at the Hindustan Aeronautics Limited Airport in Bengaluru, killing both pilots -- Squadron Leader Samir Abrol and Squadron Leader Siddhartha Negi, both from Aircraft and Systems Testing Establishment.
The PIL had sought setting up of a court-monitored committee comprising a retired judge of the apex court and experts from Indian defence services to conduct a thorough enquiry into the Mirage crash.
18/02/19 PTI/Economic Times


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