Hearing on a public interest litigation seeking measures to ensure safety of passengers on flights operated by Heritage Aviation, the high court has directed the company to submit its reply within two weeks. The matter was taken up for hearing by the division bench of chief justice Ramesh Ranganathan and justice Alok Kumar Verma.
According to the case details, Haldwani resident Ganesh Upadhyay had filed the PIL contending that negligence was being observed in the operation of flights by the said company in the state. The petitioner has claimed that the aircrafts being used by the aviation company went out of production in 1994. The State Government has not accorded importance to safety of the passengers and permitted the company to provide the air service using 25 year old aircrafts. In the past, the door of an aircraft on the Pithogarh-Dehradun flight had opened during the flight, the petitioner has stated. Further, the wheel of the aircraft on the Ghaziabad to Pithoragarh flight had also jammed. The petitioner has further alleged that the employees of the company do not behave properly with the passengers. The air-service is not being facilitated daily while arbitrary fares are also being charged, he has alleged. Hearing the matter, the division bench set the next date of hearing the case after two weeks.
