Air India Kozhikode crash: Plea before Supreme Court by passengers, dependents for ₹1.34 crore compensation

The Supreme Court on Wednesday sought the responses of Central government and Air India on a plea seeking the enhancement of compensation payable by the airline to various passengers who were injured when one of its aircrafts met with an accident at Karipur airport in Kerala's Kozhikode in August 2020. .The plea by the passengers asserted that Air India has failed to pay up the minimum compensation of 1 lakh Special Drawings Rights (SDR) payable under the Montreal Convention of 1999 to which India is a signatory. When converted to Indian currency, the amount comes to around ₹1.34 crore per passenger. .The petitioners (injured passengers and their dependents) also highlighted that the need to comply with this convention is also reflected in the Carriage by Air Act, 1972..A Supreme Court bench of Justices CT Ravikumar and Sanjay Kumar today granted six weeks time to the respondents to file a reply.“We never want to set a bad precedent. If the court finds the need to admit a matter and examine it, it will do so,” the Court orally remarked while issuing notice. The Court tagged the plea with the civil appeals that are already awaiting a decision on a similar issue stemming from the Mangalore air crash of 2010..By way of background, on August 7, 2020, the Air India Express flight IX-1344 crashed while landing at Kozhikode's Karipur International Airport, causing the death and injury of numerous passengers. Air India was then a government-owned entity (it underwent disinvestment in 2022) and the airline is said to have paid nominal amounts as compensation to the passengers in December 2020. The passengers were also asked to sign a receipt-cum-discharge bond to receive this compensation..The passengers, however, have argued that the Carriage by Air Act, after the introduction of the Montreal Convention, envisages a two-tiered compensation payment, with the minimum compensation payment being SDR 1 lakh (which, when converted to Indian currency is about ₹1,34,96,576). This amount is yet to be paid, the petitioner said. In 2022, a plea was moved before the Kerala High Court to secure the amount. A single judge initially dismissed the plea on the ground that the relief sought was public in nature whereas Air India was now a private entity. On February 28, 2023, a division bench of the Kerala High Court confirmed the single-judge's dismissal, although on a different ground. The division bench reasoned that the petitioners had already received compensation earlier from Air India Express and dismissed their plea. .This decision has now been challenged by around 60 petitioners including passengers and their dependents who have maintained that the compensation received so far is much less than the compensation they are entitled to under the Carriage by Air Act..As per the plea, Rule 21(1) in the third schedule of the Carriage by Air Act, 1972 establishes a minimum "no-fault" or strict liability requirement for air carrier companies to provide compensation of 1 Lakh SDR (referred to as "first tier compensation") for passenger deaths or injuries resulting from accidents during boarding, disembarking, or in-flight operations."The first tier of compensation, which is envisaged in Rule 21 (1) cannot be reduced or waived even under any instrument entered into between parties. Hence the Division Bench ought not to have rejected petitioners‟ claim for this tier of compensation for the reason that they had accepted the second tier of compensation voluntarily," the plea stated. It also highlighted that Rule 26 (in the same schedule) nullifies the effect of any contract that would relieve or limit an aircraft carrier's liability under the Act. Hence, it is petitioners' case that even if they have signed a discharge letter while accepting lesser compensation, Air India is not relieved of its liability to pay the minimum tier-one compensation. The plea also explained that the two-tiered compensation was introduced by the Montreal Convention so that there is uniformity in the compensation paid to international passengers, who may be from different jurisdictions. This would prevent forum shopping and bring uniformity in the liability regime, the petitioners pointed out. .Senior Advocates KK Venugopal and V Chitambaresh and advocates Kodoth Sreedharan and Zulphiker appeared for the petitioners.