Produce paragliding record of five years, Himachal High Court directs govt

Legal Correspondent

Shimla, November 22

The High Court has directed the state authorities to produce records of paragliding of the past five years.

Next hearing on Dec 16

It directed the authorities to consider suggestions given for the security and safety of paragliders and file a response by the next date of hearing on December 16

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It directed the authorities to consider suggestions given for the security and safety of paragliders and file a response by the next date of hearing. It listed the matter for further hearing on December 16.

During the course of hearing, officers informed the court about the steps taken in this regard. After interacting with government officers, a Division Bench comprising Justice Tarlok Singh Chauhan and Justice Virender Singh observed, “We find the explanation offered by the state to be not only plausible but also sustainable that the provisions of the National Aero Sports Policy (NASP) Act 2022 could not have been incorporated in the Himachal Pradesh Aero Sports Rules, 2022 as the rules were formulated and had come into force prior to the publication of the draft NASP Act 2022.”

Amit Kashyap, Director, Tourism and Civil Aviation, informed the court that these rules were being re-looked into. As far as possible, the rules would be brought in consonance with the provisions of the draft NASP Act.

On this, the court observed, “We have noticed that though the rules came into force with effect from April 20, 2022, the state did not constitute committees in terms of the rules.”

Vijay Kumar, Special Secretary, Tourism, assured the court that such a committee would be fully functional within a month from today. “The Tourism Department is exploring the possibility of providing various tracking systems for pilots, who may unfortunately meet with an accident or go missing,” he said.

The court was informed that the department would also develop a mobile phone application, which besides ensuring that no pilot was overburdened would also ensure that equipment were not used beyond their life span.

The court passed the order on a PIL regarding the death of a 12-year-old at a paragliding site in the state on December 21, 2021. The father of the deceased raised concern regarding safety not only at the adventurous spot, i.e. paragliding, but also with respect of the responsibility of the person/persons from the take-off point.