Kerala High Court seeks response from actor Vinayakan on plea seeking action for abusing co-passenger on Indigo flight

The Kerala High Court on Wednesday issued notice to Malayalam cine actor Vinayakan on a plea seeking directions to be issued to Indigo Airlines to take action against him for allegedly abusing a co-passenger on a flight operated by the airline [Jibi James v Union of India]..The Court had previously directed the petitioner's counsel, advocate John V Mani, to implead Vinayakan as an additional respondent in the matter.Today, Justice PV Kunhikrishanan allowed the impleading application filed by the counsel and issued notice to Vinayakan, before admitting the plea. .The petition was moved by one Jibi James, who claimed he was abused by Vinayakan who was his co-passenger on a flight operated by IndiGo Airlines.James submitted that while he was waiting at the Goa Airport which was a layover between his travel from Chandigarh to Kochi, he spotted a rush at the boarding bridge.When he was watching a video while waiting to board the flight, Vinayakan, who was boarding the same flight, started to abuse him accusing him of shooting the actor's video, James stated in his petition. He contended that even though he explained that he did not take any video and offered to let the actor check his phone, Vinayakan kept on abusing him.“It appeared that he (Vinayakan) was drunk and was behaving in an unruly manner,” the plea stated.Aggrieved by the humiliation and mental harassment caused to him by Vinayakan, the petitioner tried to give a written complaint at the airline's office at Kochi.The plea said that IndiGo Airlines responded to the complaint by saying that they could not do anything once the passenger left the flight.The plea further stated that even though the petitioner lodged a representation before the Deputy Secretary of Ministry of Civil Aviation through the Airsewa portal, it was closed with a similar reply from the Customer Experience Expert of Indigo Airlines, that they too have limited role once the passenger is off the flight.Therefore, James approached the High court seeking a direction to IndiGo Airlines and the Deputy Secretary of Ministry of Civil Aviation to consider his compliant and representation within a time frame to be fixed by the Court.