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Journalism of Courage
The Nagpur bench of the Bombay High Court on Monday issued notice to the Ministry of Civil Aviation, Director General of the Central Industrial Security Force (CISF), and Bureau of Civil Aviation Security in a plea by a pilot working with IndiGo Airlines seeking directions to permit him to carry a ‘kirpan’ inside airports.
A division bench of Justice Nitin W Sambre and Justice Abhay J Mantri was hearing a plea by Angad Singh, who through advocate S S Dewani, claimed that he has a right to carry a kirpan or a short sword with a curved blade given the fundamental right to profess religion under Article 25 of the Constitution.
Singh argued that restrictions imposed by the Ministry of Civil Aviation are required to be corrected/amended given the subsequent corrigendum to the order it had issued on March 12, 2022.
Singh argued that a notification issued by the DGCA on March 4, 2022, stated that Sikhs will be allowed to carry a kirpan provided the length of its blade does not exceed six inches and the total length is not more than nine inches. The corrigendum issued on March 12, 2022, even allowed Sikhs working at airports to carry kirpans.
He claimed that despite such directives, the CISF was not permitting him to carry his kirpan inside airports and the Airport Authority had also confiscated it. He said he wrote to the CISF and the Ministry of Civil Aviation about the difficulties he faced while fulfilling his professional duties.
To support his case, he also cited a Delhi High Court judgement of December 2022 in the Harsh Vibhore Singhal case, in which the court had noted that there was no discrimination between Sikh passengers and stakeholders working at airports.
Singh in his plea stated, “The very act of the respondents in not permitting the petitioner to carry kirpan while travelling even when passengers are allowed to carry the same is logic or reasoning as it is easier to control and monitor the actions of the stakeholders and employees such as the petitioner rather than to monitor the passengers who are travelling in the flight. The passengers being permitted to carry kirpan defies logic and reasoning why the petitioner should be deprived of carrying the kirpan while travelling”.
He sought direction to the Ministry of Civil Aviation to issue corrective guidelines and remove any confusion regarding granting permissions to stakeholders who carry kirpans inside airports. Singh sought direction to the ministry to amend a particular entry in the March 4, 2022, order to permit him and others working at the airports to carry Kirpan
Issuing notices to the respondent authorities seeking their responses, the High Court posted further hearing to January 29, 2024.
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