LI Network
Published on: October 19, 2023 at 11:00 IST
The Supreme Court has issued notices in response to petitions filed by passengers affected by the tragic Air India Express Flight IX-1344 crash at Karipur International Airport, Kozhikode, in 2020. The affected passengers are seeking compensation for their losses.
A bench comprising Justices C.T. Ravikumar and Sanjay Kumar heard the petitions filed by aggrieved passengers, challenging a judgment by a division bench of the Kerala High Court that had rejected their compensation claims.
The petitioners argued before the court that Air India Express had provided only nominal compensation to the affected parties through negotiation agencies. The passengers had accepted this compensation, believing it to be an interim settlement.
In addition to issuing the notice, the Supreme Court has also associated the case with other pending civil appeals concerning similar issues stemming from the Mangalore air crash in 2010.
Previously, the Kerala High Court had dismissed the writ petition, asserting that the reliefs sought were of a private nature and that Air India, as a respondent, was no longer a public entity following the government’s disinvestment from the airline.
The 2020 incident involved an Air India Express flight carrying 190 passengers from Dubai, which skidded off the runway and broke into two during landing at Kozhikode airport amid heavy rainfall.