Times Now: New Delhi: Monday, May
08, 2017.
Denying
allegations of charging airline passengers arbitrarily and exorbitantly at the
time of agitations in any state of India, aviation regulator DGCA responded to
a plea in the Delhi High Court.
The plea
sought capping of airfares across the country to avoid being 'fleeced' by
airlines. The submission by the Directorate General of Civil Aviation was made
before a bench headed by Acting Chief, Justice Gita Mittal.
Defending
price hike during emergency situations, the DGCA told the court, transportation
by road and rail are affected and only air transportation is available due to
which the demand for air travel increases leading to rise in fares.
"However,
it is denied that the charges are irrational or arbitrary as the same are
governed by the market forces, availability and circumstances," the DGCA
said in its affidavit filed in the court.
The PIL filed
through advocate Amit Sahni has urged the court to direct the authorities to
frame "guidelines so as to put a cap on airfares and prevent the private
airlines from charging arbitrarily, irrationally and exorbitantly for air
flights."
In response
to a RTI filed by the petitioner regarding airfare rates, Civil Aviation
Ministry responded that it doesn't control airfare rates.
The petition
alleged that during the Jat agitation in Haryana last year, private airlines
charged exorbitant amounts from passengers and sought that a cap be put on
airfares.
"Private
airlines companies have fleeced people even in emergent situations and the
government has stood as a mute spectator. There is an urgent need to regulate
the upper limit of airfares so that private airlines cannot fleece their
customers as per their own wish," the plea said.
Terming the
allegations as baseless, the DGCA refuted the claims made by the petitioner.
The DGCA had
earlier said that competition between airlines would take care of the issue of
pricing, in response to complaints by passengers.