The Delhi High Court on Tuesday sought Air India’s stand in a plea by Shankar Mishra, an accused in the Air India urination case, against an order passed by an appellate committee declining his request for supply of certain documents. Mishra was accused of urinating on a woman co-passenger in an inebriated condition on board an Air India flight between New York and Delhi in November last year. On January 31, Mishra was granted bail after remaining in judicial custody for 26 days. Appearing for Mishra, senior advocate Devadatt Kamat submitted before a single-judge bench of Justice Subramonium Prasad that his client had lost his job. The high court thereafter issued notice to Air India granting them time to file their reply and listed the plea for hearing on January 19, 2024. The plea filed by advocate Kaustubh Anshuraj challenges a September 15 order of the appellate committee of the Ministry of Civil Aviation to the extent that it declined Mishra’s request for supply of documents. It seeks a direction to Air India to supply the documents sought by Mishra which would enable him to effectively defend himself in the inquiry. The plea submits that the non-supply of the documents has resulted in a gross violation of Mishra’s fundamental rights. The plea further claims that the documents, which include the statement of the cabin crew/pilot, have a material bearing on the outcome of the inquiry proceedings and thus should have been supplied to Mishra. The plea also claims that the appellate committee had in August directed Mishra to explain the relevance of the documents sought and despite his detailed explanation, the same were not provided. Earlier this year, Mishra moved the high court seeking the constitution of an appellate committee in order to challenge a January 18 order of Air India’s internal inquiry committee which held that the allegations against Mishra “in the ‘proforma for reporting for unruly/disruptive passenger’ stand established” and putting him in the “no-fly list”. The order had banned him from flying for four months. After the Directorate General of Civil Aviation had told the high court that the committee had been constituted, Mishra moved an appeal before the appellate committee on April 6.
