SC upholds relief to BJP MPs in Deoghar airport violation case, rejects Jhakhand’s plea

In an interim relief to BJP MPs Nishikant Dubey and Manoj Tiwari, the Supreme Court on Tuesday said the lawmakers will not be prosecuted in connection with an FIR of Jharkhand police for allegedly forcing the Deoghar air traffic control to allow their aircraft to take off after sunset in 2022.

A bench comprising Justices A S Oka and Manmohan passed the verdict on an appeal of the state government challenging the Jharkhand High Court judgement which quashed the FIR against the lawmakers.

The bench, however, granted the state government the liberty to forward the material collected during its probe to the authorised officer under the Aircraft Act within four weeks.

The competent officer of the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) shall take a decision in accordance with law as to whether a complaint needs to be filed under the Act, the bench said.

"We permit the state of Jharkhand to forward the materials collected by it during investigation to such an authorized officer under the Aircraft Act, 1934 within four weeks, who shall take a decision in accordance with law as to whether a complaint needs to be filed under the Aircraft Act, 1934 and the rules framed,” said Justice Manmohan, pronouncing the operative part of the judgement.

A detailed judgement is awaited.

The top court, in December 18 last year, reserved its verdict on the appeal of the state government against the Jharkhand High Court judgement.

It had questioned the probe by Jharkhand CID against the two MPs noting it was the DGCA's responsibility to look into the allegations.

The court told the state government the case was triable under the Aircraft Act which gave the sole responsibility related to aviation offences to the DGCA.

The case relates to an FIR lodged at Kunda police station in Deoghar district of Jharkhand against nine people, including Dubey and Tiwari.

They had allegedly forced Deoghar ATC personnel to clear their chartered flight to take off after the scheduled permitted time on August 31, 2022 in violation of security protocol at airports.

The top court’s verdict came on a petition by the Jharkhand government challenging a March 13, 2023 high court ruling which quashed the FIR on grounds that no prior sanction was taken from Lok Sabha secretariat as per the Aircraft (Amendment) Act, 2020.

During the high court proceedings, Dubey's counsel contended that their chartered flight on August 31, 2023 was delayed, but as per aviation rules could take off half-an-hour after sunset.

On that day the sun set at around 6.03 pm whereas the flight took off at 6.17 pm, which was well within the accepted norms of flying, he said.

The counsel argued the MPs were targeted due to political vendetta and maliciously framed in a false case.

The FIR accused the BJP leaders and others of threatening and coercing the ATC officials to authorise the takeoff of a private aircraft in violation of safety regulations, invoked provisions of the IPC.

The IPC provisions, relating to endangering life or personal safety, criminal trespass, house trespass under Section 336, 447 and 448 of the code, were invoked against the MPs and others.

Some provisions of the Aircraft Act were also invoked against them.