Delhi HC nod to DGCA to take over groundhandling at airports

“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.

The airlines have claimed they themselves could efficiently manage ground-handling services for their aircraft,which they are doing now,and sought the court to declare the government’s new rule as null and void as it would hamper their business interests.

The airlines body also contended that groundhandling constitutes an integral part of any airlines’ business and it was one of the main and unique features of the each airlines.

Rejecting the contention of the airlines,the bench said “the said argument (of the airlines) is not acceptable as there is a distinction between an airport operator and an airline operator”.

The bench accepted the government’s argument that groundhandling of flights at airports has become a matter of concern in the light of increasing terrorism activities.

“Groundhandling of flights at Indian airports became a matter of grave concern against the backdrop of international terrorism which witnessed hijacking of Indian Airline passengers,carrying shoe bombs,liquid explosives,etc…..,” the Centre had argued.

The policy,announced in 2007,aimed at bringing down the number of agencies handling the job at six major airports in the country to three. However,the implementation of the policy has been deferred twice.