By IANS,
New Delhi : The Delhi High Court, while dismissing a public interest petition, Wednesday ruled that the collection of airport development fee (ADF) from passengers is not an irregularity on the part of the Airports Authority of India (AAI).
“We find no irregularities attached to the imposition of ADF, therefore the petition is dismissed,” the division bench comprising Chief Justice Ajit Prakash Shah and Justice Manmohan said.
The court said if the AAI had to carry out the functioning of the airport for the welfare of passengers, it is right to charge ADF from them.
“It is more akin to the fact that the charge is for providing the facilities to the passengers and therefore within the ambit of law,” the bench ruled.
The court, while referring to the section of the Airport Authority Act, said: “Section 12 (4) of the act if construed as without the power of imposing the levy of development charges, then the lessee would not be entitled to recover any fees from the passengers for the other facilities.”
“If the lessee is not entitled to obtain the ADF, then it is an additional burden on the lessee itself which is not fair enough, so charging fee from passengers is on the right side. Stopping them from collecting the fee would frustrate the whole government policy of involving private participation in the sector,” the bench said.
The bench had reserved the order last week after the hearing arguments of the AAI, Delhi International Authority Limited (DIAL) and Mumbai International Airport Limited (MIAL).
The public interest petition had challenged the ADF of Rs.200 on all outgoing domestic passengers and Rs.1,300 on international ones since March 1, 2009.
Besides alleging that the money being charged for airport development work was “placing undue burden on the travelling public”, the petition argued that in return for the payment, the passenger is not being offered any extra facility or value by DIAL.
DIAL, a consortium led by the Bangalore-based GMR, said the court verdict gives them the much-required financial cushion to ensure world class aviation infrastructure for the capital.
“The ADF is levied for a limited period to modernise and develop an airport and provide modern passenger-friendly facilities,” a DIAL spokesperson said, referring to the nod for the levy for 36 months till February 2012.
Currently, ADF is charged only at the Delhi and Mumbai airports. In the greenfield projects of Bangalore and Hyderabad, a passenger is levied what is called a user development fee (UDF).
While the ADF is charged from passengers even as the airport is being upgraded, the UDF is levied only when the project is becomes fully operational with all the required infrastructure.
An industry expert said the issue of adjudicating on financial matters concerning the aviation sector was technically a mandate given to the newly-constituted regulator, Airport Economic Regulatory Authority (AERA).
“The issue can still be taken up before the AERA,” Kapil Kaul, chief executive of the industry think tank, Centre for Asia Pacific Aviation (CAPA), told IANS.
In March, the government asked all airlines flying out of Delhi to collect a development fee from passengers while issuing tickets.