Nearly 22 years after an Indian Airlines Boeing 737 aircraft crashed in Ahmedabad killing 133 occupants including crew members, the Supreme Court today agreed to examine the compensation claims of the bereaved families and their legal heirs.
A bench of Justices HS Bedi and J M Panchal, while agreeing to consider the plea for an early hearing of the matter, issued notice to the claimants on a batch of petitions filed by the Indian Airlines now rechristened National Aviation Company of India Ltd.
While the claimants are seeking enhanced compensation over and above that awarded by the trial court and upheld by the Gujarat high court, the Indian Airlines insists it was not liable to pay the compensation of more than Rs2 lakh per family as per the provisions of the Carriage by Air Act 1972.
For instance in the case of Manoramaben Narendrabhai Patel, a claimant, the two courts had awarded a compensation of nearly Rs10 lakh. Similar enhanced compensations were given to other claimants by the two courts on the ground that the accident occured due to "negligence" of the airlines.
Aggrieved, the airlines has moved a SLP challenging the award.
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