Don't travel by air, says Supreme Court; refuses urgent listing of plea alleging 700% hike in airfares
Centre says aviation rules under Bharatiya Vayuyan Adhiniyam being fast-tracked to curb volatility and ensure passenger protection
Account subscription benefits alongside Premium Stories, Editorials, Opinions and more.
Unlock these with Subscription
The View From India Looking at World Affairs from the Indian perspective.
First Day First Show News and reviews from the world of cinema and streaming.
Today's Cache Your download of the top 5 technology stories of the day.
Science For All The weekly newsletter from science writers takes the jargon out of science and puts the fun in!
Data Point Decoding the headlines with facts, figures, and numbers
THEdge At the cutting edge of education and careers
Health Matters Ramya Kannan writes to you on getting to good health, and staying there
Gender Agenda Stories from beyond the binary.
The Hindu On Books Books of the week, reviews, excerpts, new titles and features.
Updated - November 02, 2026 04:26 pm IST - New Delhi
The Supreme Court tells the petitioner to avoid air travel and refuses urgent listing despite a more than 700% spike in airfare.
File (Representational image) | Photo Credit: PTI
Don’t travel by air, the Supreme Court told a petitioner on Monday (November 2, 2026) while refusing urgent listing of a plea alleging nearly 700% increase in airfares.
An advocate mentioned the matter for urgent listing before a Bench comprising Justices Vikram Nath, Sandeep Mehta and Aparesh Kumar Singh.
“The aviation fare has increased by 700%,” the advocate said.
The advocate then said air travel is an essential service.
“It’s a violation of Article 14.”
Article 14 of the Constitution deals with equality before law.
The Supreme Court is already hearing a separate petition filed by social activist S.
Laxminarayanan, who has sought a robust and independent regulator that ensures transparency and passenger protection across the civil aviation sector and regulatory guidelines to control “unpredictable fluctuations” in airfare and ancillary charges imposed by private airlines in India.
During a hearing on that plea on October 16, the Centre informed the Supreme Court that administrative approval has been granted to rules under a 2024 legislation aimed at regulating India’s aviation sector, and is likely to be published in two weeks.
The Supreme Court had asked Solicitor General Tushar Mehta to place the published rules under the Bharatiya Vayuyan Adhiniyam, 2024, before the court on the next date of hearing — November 16.
On August 17, the Centre told the Supreme Court that it had fast-tracked the framing of rules under the Bharatiya Vayuyan Adhiniyam, aimed at modernising India’s aviation sector.
In November last year, the Supreme Court sought responses from the Centre and others on Mr.
Laxminarayanan’s plea.
While hearing the matter in January, the Supreme Court had said it would interfere with the “unpredictable fluctuations” in airfares and flagged the exorbitant rise during festivals.
It had termed the exorbitant hike of fares by airlines “exploitation” and asked the Centre and the Directorate General of Civil Aviation to file their replies on the plea.
Terms & conditions | Institutional Subscriber
Comments have to be in English, and in full sentences.
They cannot be abusive or personal.
Please abide by our community guidelines for posting your comments.
We have migrated to a new commenting platform.
If you are already a registered user of The Hindu and logged in, you may continue to engage with our articles.
If you do not have an account please register and login to post comments.
Users can access their older comments by logging into their accounts on Vuukle.
Full detailed coverage is shown on the council website above. Source attribution: The Hindu – Business.
Back to all council news
