PIL agst AI's 48-hr rule on dead body: HC seeks Centre's reply

Air India's decision to enforce a 63-year-old rule mandating 48-hour advance notice to the airport health officer about the arrival of dead body or ashes was challenged today in the Delhi High court.

A bench of Acting Chief Justice Gita Mittal and Justice C Hari Shankar issued notice to the ministries of Health and Civil Aviation as well as the national carrier, Air India, and sought their replies on a plea which has claimed the rule delays repatriation of the human remains by an extra 48 hours.

The rule under challenge is provided under the Aircraft (Public Health) Rules which was enacted in 1954, but it was not implemented till July 2017 when Air India notified implementation of the provision, the petition by an NGO has claimed.

As per the NGO, Pravasi Legal Cell, "the impugned Rule 43 infringes the rights of the deceased as well as that of the family of deceased by unnecessarily delaying the repatriation of the dead body by another extra 48 hours." The plea filed through advocate Jose Abraham also claimed that the rule infringes the fundamental rights of the deceased and their kin and also exceeded the mandate of the Aircraft Act and the Aircraft (Public health) Rules, 1954.

The NGO, which claims to have been working for the betterment of the life and living conditions of non-resident Indians, has cited a news report according to which the remains of a deceased NRI got stranded in Saudi Arabia after an airport in Kerala, where the body was to arrive, decided to implement the rule strictly.

According to the report cited in the petition, the Chief Minister of Kerala had to intervene to get the clearance and he has now asked the Civil Aviation Minister to withdraw, with immediate effect, the order implementing the rule.

(This article has not been edited by DNA's editorial team and is auto-generated from an agency feed.)