The Hindu : Front Page : High Court declines to interfere with closure of HAL Airport

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Thursday, Apr 17, 2008
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High Court declines to interfere with closure of HAL Airport

Staff Reporter

Suggests renegotiating closure and user development fee with BIAL

BANGALORE: The Karnataka High Court on Wednesday declined to pass an interim order directing the Union Government and the Airports Authority of India (AAI) not to close down the Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd. (HAL) Airport for commercial civil aviation operations in Bangalore.

It, however, directed the Union and State governments and the AAI to immediately consider its suggestion to renegotiate with Bangalore International Airport Ltd. (BIAL), promoters of the new international airport at Devanahalli, the two issues of closure of HAL Airport and levy of user development fee (UDF) on passengers, in the public interest.

A Division Bench comprising Chief Justice Cyriac Joseph and Justice Ravi Malimath passed the order on several public interest litigation (PIL) petitions challenging the closure of the HAL Airport for commercial civil aviation operations and levy of UDF by BIAL on domestic and international passengers.

The petitioners contended that the HAL Airport would be closed for commercial operations once the Bangalore International Airport became operational.

Though they did not object to the opening of the new airport, they wanted the HAL airport to be used for short-haul domestic flights. They said connectivity between Bangalore and Devanahalli, which is 40 km away, was bad, and it would take hours for passengers to travel to the new airport.

The Union and State governments, the AAI and BIAL had opposed the petition. BIAL said HAL was basically a Defence airport, and its use for civilian purposes was likely to jeopardise flight safety. Moreover, the Concession Agreement entered into between it and the President of India on July 5, 2004 specifically provided for the closure of the HAL Airport for commercial civil aviation once the new international airport became operational.

BIAL said the closure clause was an essential and integral part on the basis of which the new airport was to be set up.

The State, the AAI and HAL adopted the stand of the Centre and opposed any interim relief as sought for by the petitioners.

The court took note of the findings of the Standing Parliamentary Committee on Transport, Tourism and Culture on the closure of the HAL Airport at Bangalore and the Begumpet Airport at Hyderabad.

It said that the committee had deplored the levy of UDF of Rs. 675 on domestic passengers and Rs. 955 on international passengers by the BIAL.

It said though “it is not persuaded to pass an interim order directing the respondents not to close down the HAL Airport and not to levy UDF, we are of the view that in the light of the parliamentary committee recommendations, the Union [Government] should seriously consider the need to renegotiate the two issues with BIAL.”

“However, being conscious of the limitation of the power and jurisdiction of the court and its lack of expertise in dealing with such matters, we decline to grant the interim stay as sought for by the petitioners. But we direct the Union, State and AAI to immediately consider the suggestion to renegotiate the two issues with BIAL and to explore the possibility of minimising, if not completely removing, the inconvenience and difficulty of the people”.

The Bench posted the case for final disposal in the second week of June.

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