The Nagpur bench of the Bombay High Court on Monday issued notice to the Ministry of Civil Aviation, Bureau of Civil Aviation Security and Director General of the Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) in a request put in by a pilot working with IndiGo Airlines in order to seek the directions to permit him to carry a ‘kirpan’ inside airports.
A division bench consisting of Justice Justice Abhay J Mantri and Nitin W Sambre was hearing a plea by Angad Singh, who was with his advocate S S Dewani. Mr Deewani on behalf of Singh claimed that the pilot (Angad Singh) has a right to carry a kirpan, (short sword with a curved blade) which is provided as the fundamental right to declare their religion under Article 25 of the Constitution.
It was also argued by Singh that the restrictions which were imposed by the Ministry of Civil Aviation requires an amendment. Sigh, therefore claimed that the notification that was thereby issued by the DGCA on March 4, 2022, stated that Sikhs will be allowed to carry a kirpan depending upon a certain length of its blade which should not exceed six inches and that the total length should not be more than nine inches. The corrigendum was issued on March 12, 2022 and it also allowed the Sikhs working at airports to carry kirpans.
He said that after such directives also, the CISF was not allowing him to carry his kirpan inside airports and his kirpan was also confiscated by the Airport Authority. He also said that he wrote to the CISF and the Ministry of Civil Aviation about the difficulties he was facing while fulfilling his professional duties.
Singh stated in his plea, “The very act of the respondents in not permitting the petitioner to carry kirpan while travelling even when passengers are allowed to carry the same is logic or reasoning as it is easier to control and monitor the actions of the stakeholders and employees such as the petitioner rather than to monitor the passengers who are travelling in the flight. The passengers being permitted to carry kirpan defies logic and reasoning why the petitioner should be deprived of carrying the kirpan while travelling”.
