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‘Can’t be permitted’: Delhi HC declines Kunal Kamra plea challenging flying ban over ‘heckling’ of scribe

It was alleged that Kamra, while travelling on a Mumbai-Lucknow IndiGo flight in January, provoked a TV news anchor by asking questions over his news presentation style.

‘Can’t be permitted’: Delhi HC declines Kunal Kamra plea challenging flying ban over ‘heckling’ of scribe

(Photo: Twitter | @kunalkamra88)

The Delhi High Court on Friday declined to entertain stand-up comedian Kunal Kamra’s petition challenging the flying ban imposed on him by IndiGo, Vistara and other airlines observing that “his behaviour of heckling in-flight cannot be permitted.”

Justice Naveen Chawla disapproved of Kamra’s behaviour on flight, wherein he had heckled a TV channel’s journalist, and said it cannot be permitted on an airline.

The court also declined Kamra’s oral plea for an interim direction permitting him to fly on any of the airlines.

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The court said it was not going to entertain the matter as multiple causes of action had been raised in the matter.

After the court made it clear it was not going to entertain the matter, Kamra’s lawyers sought permission to withdraw the plea and approach the appellate authority against the ban by IndiGo.

Full service carrier Vistara had last week banned Kunal Kamra from availing its services till April 27 for “unacceptable behaviour” onboard an IndiGo flight in January this year.

“Based on the ‘Order’ passed by an internal committee constituted by InterGlobe Aviation Ltd. in compliance with the respective CAR and following due process, we have placed the passenger on our no-fly list until 27 April 2020,” a Vistara spokesperson said.

Last month, IndiGo had halved the six-month flying ban on Kamra. An ‘Internal Committee’ had heard both parties in February and passed an order pursuant to which Kamra has been suspended from flying IndiGo for a period of three months.

IndiGo said that it will comply with the order of the Internal Committee.

Lately, Kunal Kamra had challenged the airline’s decision to bar him from its flights in the Delhi High Court.

The high court in February directed the Directorate General of Civil Aviation to decide within eight weeks the stand-up comedian’s February 20 representation against the IndiGo ban on him.

It was alleged that Kamra, while travelling on a Mumbai-Lucknow IndiGo flight in January, provoked a TV news anchor by asking questions over his news presentation style.

“Offensive behaviour designed to provoke & create disturbance inside an aircraft is absolutely unacceptable and endangers safety of air travellers. We are left with no option but to advise other airlines to impose similar restrictions on the person concerned,” Union Civil Aviation Minister Hardeep Singh Puri had posted on Twitter following the incident.

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