The Madras High Court has stayed the operation of an order of July of the Director-General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) suspending the Scheduled Operators Permit (SOP) No.17 for Paramount Airways Pvt. Ltd. Stay of the order would not give a right to the airlines to commence flying operations, the court said.
A Division Bench consisting of Justices Elipe Dharma Rao and K.K. Sasidharan which passed the order on petitions in appeals filed by Paramount also stayed a single Judge's order of August 3 dismissing a petition by the airlines company, challenging the July 2 order, on the ground that the petitioner was not in possession of five aircraft which was a mandatory requirement.
Challenging the single Judge's order, the company filed writ appeal. The airlines company was in a precarious position because of the suspension of their SOP owing to non-possession of required number of aircraft and the Civil Aviation Ministry's stand that their “In-Principle Approval” for importing aircraft to restore the permit would not be considered, unless the order of suspension of SOP was revoked.
The Bench said statutory authorities such as the DGCA should be pragmatic. Its attempt should not be to force impracticable orders on airlines such as the petitioner. There was no point in saying that operators' permit would not be given unless the airlines procured five aircraft, knowing fully well that without the SOP, it was impossible to import aircraft. The July 2 order clearly showed that the grant of “In-Principle Approval” by the Civil Aviation Ministry was not taken note of by the DGCA before passing the order. The airlines had produced the agreement entered into with the foreign suppliers for importing the required number of aircraft.
