Supreme Court orders SpiceJet to pay a fine of Rs 10 lakh to flyer

1. On Thursday, the Supreme Court ordered SpiceJet airlines to pay Rs 10 lakh as compensation to a passenger suffering from cerebral palsy, who was forcibly offloaded from a flight in the year 2012.

2. The apex court while ruling in favour of disabled flier Jeeja Ghosh stated that the manner in which she was deboarded depicts ‘total lack of sensitivity’. A bench of Justices A K Sikri and R K Agrawal were quoted saying, “Ghosh was not given ‘appropriate, fair and caring treatment’, which she required with ‘due sensitivity’ and the decision to de-board her was ‘uncalled for’ and violation of human dignity.”

3. On February 19, Ghosh – who is an activist, was offloaded from a flight from Kolkata while she was on her way to attend a conference in Goa. The pilot stated that she was not fit to fly and therefore has to deboard the flight.

4. “Even if we assume that there was some blood or froth that was noticed to be oozing out from the sides of her mouth when she was seated in the aircraft, nobody even cared to interact with her and asked her the reason for the same. No doctor was summoned to examine her condition. Abruptly and without any justification, a decision was taken to deboard her without ascertaining as to whether her condition was such which prevented her from flying.” said Justice Sikri. “This act clearly amounts to violation of Rule 133-A of Rules, 1937 and the CAR, 2008 guidelines,” he further added.

5. The bench in its 54-page judgement said that a little care, a little sensitivity and a little positive attitude on the part of the officials of the airlines would not have resulted in the trauma, pain and suffering that Jeeja Ghosh had to undergo.

Note: Cerebral Palsy is considered a neurological disorder caused by a non-progressive brain injury or malformation that occurs while the child’s brain is under development. It affects muscles and a person’s ability to control them.