NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court has made it clear that differently-abled persons with prosthetic limbs or calipers should not be asked to remove the prosthetics at airport security checks so as to maintain human dignity.
A Bench comprising Justice Hemant Gupta and Justice V Ramasubramanian while hearing a petition filed by a disability rights activist Jeeja Ghosh, observed on Wednesday that lifting a person with a disability during air travel or security checkup is inhumane and maintained that the same should not be done without the person's consent, reports Live Law.
Jeeja Ghosh was forcibly de-boarded from a Spicejet flight due to her disability. In 2016, the Supreme Court had directed Spicejet to pay Rs 10 lakhs as compensation to Ghosh for violating her right to dignity.
The court had issued further directions to the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) to modify its guidelines to ensure the dignity of persons with disabilities during air travel. The court on Wednesday considered the guidelines framed by the DGCA.
However, it may be recalled that an actor-cum-dancer Sudha Chandran was recently forced to remove her prosthetic limb at a security check at Mumbai Airport. Following an uproar, the CISF was forced to apologize for the inconvenience caused to the actor.