Air India Mangalore plane crash: Apex court notice on compensation plea

New Delhi, Jan 3 (PTI) The Supreme Court of India today issued notices to both the central government and the government owned Air India on a plea seeking a minimum of Rupees 7.5 million (about USD 145,000) as compensation for each of the 158 persons who died in the May 2010 Mangalore air crash. A bench headed by justice Dalveer Bhandari of the apex Indian court asked the central government and the national carrier to file their response and fixed the matter for final hearing in April. The court passed the order on a petition filed by Mohammed Rafiq Salam, who had lost his son in the crash. Salam's son was working in Dubai and was coming home a month after his sister's wedding. Salam approached the apex court challenging a verdict of a division bench of the Kerala High Court which had set aside a single judge order directing Air India to pay a minimum compensation of Rs 7.5 million to the families of each of the victims. Senior advocate Harish Salve, appearing for the petitioner pleaded with the court that the victims' families should be compensated according to the Montreal Convention to which India is a signatory. According to the Montreal Convention, the petitioners are entitled to have 100,000 SDR (Special Drawing Rights) compensation. SDRs are issued by the International Monetary fund and covert to nearly Rs 7.5 million. One hundred and fifty-eight passengers and crew onboard the Air India aircraft from Dubai were killed when the plane caught fire after one of its wings hit a hillock at Kenjar in Mangalore on May 22, 2010 while landing. In July 2011, a single judge bench of the Kerala High Court, while hearing Salam's plea, had held that the carrier was liable to pay no fault liability of 100,000 SDRs to the petitioner. But the order was set aside by a division bench of the high court on an appeal by Air India. The division bench held that the airline was liable to pay only actual damages proved by the claimants in case of death and the victims in case of injury. The liability can be determined through negotiated settlement or by civil court of competitive jurisdiction, the bench had held. The division bench, while setting aside the order of the single judge, had said that the national carrier as a matter of goodwill should offer a "reasonable minimum", even if the actual damages payable in law is low, so that unnecessary litigation can be avoided. If no settlement is possible, actual damages can be determined by the civil court, the division bench of high court had said, while directing AI to pay compensation reasonably estimated by the attorneys irrespective of whether there is settlement or not. PTI