Saturday, August 27, 2011

Mangalore plane crash: Air India needn’t pay Rs 75 lakh compensation – High Court

Kochi: The Kerala High Court on Thursday ruled that the airline company need not pay the compensation amount of Rs 75 lakhs each to the victims of the Mangalore plane crash. The Division Bench gave the order in the appeal given by the Air India against the earlier Single Bench rule to pay the amount.

The Division Bench comprising of Js Ramachandran Nair and PS Gopinathan added that the relatives of the victims and those injured in the accident can hold talks with the representatives of the company to fix the compensation amount, and if the amount is not enough they can approach the civil court. The court also rejected another appeal which demanded to increase the compensation amount fixed by the Single Bench earlier.

A Single Bench of the High Court had earlier ordered the Air India to pay compensation amount of Rs 75 lakh each to the victims of the plane crash, in a petition filed by the father of a victim from Kasargode. The order said that the amount should be Rs 75 lakhs even if not considering the age of the victim, his/her income, the loss to his/her dependents, etc as per the Montreal Convention.

Meanwhile, the Air India pointed out that there was no relevance for higher or lower compensation amounts as per the Montreal Convention. One of the victims who was a cardiologist was paid Rs 7.757 crore as compensation. The lowest compensation amount paid was Rs 25 lakhs. A total of Rs 50 crores have already been paid to 62 people and talks are being held with the rest. The company also reportedly informed that the petitioner from Kasargod has already been paid Rs 20 lakhs and has been informed that he would be paid Rs 35 lakhs. Tradition has it that the victims who occupied a higher position are paid more and common people are paid fewer amounts as compensation. The court then agreed to the arguments of the Air India.

The other petition rejected by the court was submitted by the relatives of Muhammed Rafi, who was killed in the crash. The petition reportedly says that Rs 75 lakhs is not enough and that the compensation amount should be at least Rs 1.5 crore as per international rules and standards.

The plane crash took place on May 22, 2010, in the Bajpe International Airport in Mangalore. There were 158 passengers and seven flight crew on board the Air India flight which lost control while landing and crashed into the valley nearby and caught fire. Only eight people escaped. Nearly 60 of those killed in the crash were from Kasargod.

Source:  http://twocircles.net

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