Notice to Centre on plea to ban Sikhs carrying kirpan on flights

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, August 18

The Delhi High Court today issued a notice to the Centre on a petition seeking a ban on Sikh passengers carrying kirpans, having a blade length of up to six inches, on domestic flights.

A Bench led by Chief Justice Satish Chandra Sharma, however, refused to stay the March 4 notification issued by the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) in this regard.

Asking the respondents to file their replies, the High Court posted the matter for further hearing on December 15.

Aviation security order challenged

• The petitioner challenged aviation security order dated March 4, 2022, and corrigendum dated March 12, 2022 issued by the Bureau of Civil Aviation Security
• He alleged that the exemption given to Sikhs created a loophole in the safety and security of airports and the aircraft and also safety and security of the passengers

Petitioner advocate Harsh Vibhore Singhal has sought constitution of a committee to examine “workable solutions” to ensure that a kirpan permitted to be carried on the flight was “appropriately designed and crafted” and did not have a blade length beyond 4 cm.

Permitting kirpans on flights, in terms of the presently permissible dimensions, has “dangerous ramifications for aviation safety” and “if kirpans are deemed safe only because of religion, one wonders how knitting/crochet needles, coconuts, screwdrivers, and small pen knives, etc. are deemed hazardous and prohibited,” he contended.

“Regardless of a contrary perception, a kirpan remains a blade used in hundreds of homicides with scores of murder cases adjudicated by even the Supreme Court. Thus, kirpans can cause havoc in the skies reducing aviation safety to a nullity,” he said, terming the regulatory permission as “bad in law”.

He said the permission to carry kirpans on domestic flights went against civil aviation safety protocols as well as international conventions, and that it has been promulgated without application of mind in spite of “historical lessons in aviation hijackings”.

Earlier this month, the Supreme Court had refused to entertain a petition seeking a ban on Sikh passengers carrying kirpan on domestic flights operating from domestic terminals. However, it had granted liberty to petitioner Hindu Sena to approach the HC concerned.

The petitioner challenged the aviation security order dated March 4, 2022, and corrigendum dated March 12, 2022 issued by the Bureau of Civil Aviation Security (BCAS) alleging that the exemption given to Sikhs created a loophole in the safety and security of Airports and the aircraft and also safety and security of the passengers. It contended that it violated the fundamental right to life and personal liberty of individuals guaranteed under Article 21 of the Constitution.

On March 4, 2020, BCAS allowed passengers to carry kirpan with the exception that this shall be for Sikh passengers only and, no stakeholder or its employee at the airport and working in any terminal, domestic or international, shall be allowed to carry kirpan on the person. But on March 12, BCAS removed the exception and allowed its Sikh employees to carry kirpan.

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