A Division Bench comprising Justices Arun Kumar and Manmohan Sarin issued show cause notices to Ministry of Defence and Home Affairs, AAI and Delhi Government asking them to file replies before July 20, the next date of hearing.

The petition filed by All India Lawyers Union (AILU) sought court's intervention against "inaction" of the government in announcing adequate compensation to the families of civilians affected by the crash of AN-32 Indian Air Force (IAF) transport plane on March 7 at Pappankalan near Indira Gandhi International (IGI), airport here.

AILU counsel Ashok Aggarwal, moving the plea, said the compensation to the civilian victims should not be less than what would be payable to the families of IAF personnel killed in the accident.

Threecivilians on ground were killed and seven others sustained injuries in the crash which also took the lives of 19 IAF personnel including three crew members.

The petitioner said all the injured people and those whose properties were damaged in the accident, should also be paid suitable compensation.

The petitioner said the IAF personnel would be entitled to a compensation ranging between Rs 15 lakh to Rs 20 lakh as per their service rules.

It sought court's direction to the government to take every possible measure to prevent such mishaps in future, particularly in the periphery of IGI airport which caters to over 250 incoming and outgoing flights every day.

"Several times in the past also aircraft crashes have taken place in the Dwarka sub-city, which is a few kilometers away from IGI," the petitioner said.

It said all the civilians killed and injured in the crash were poor construction workers from Madhya Pradesh, Orissa and Uttar Pradesh and the plane's debris had caused extensive damage to atleast 10 of their huts.

"None of these people have been paid any amount by the government on account of the loss of lives, injuries and damage suffered to the property," the petition claimed.

The three civilians killed in the plane were identified as 60-year-old woman Jyoti, 12-year-old Alka and eight-year-old Krishna.

After the accident, the victims were surviving on an aid of Rs 30,000 provided by the Indian Council for Rescue, a non-governmental organisation, while the contractor who had engaged them had not paid them anything, it said.