New Delhi:&nbsp;The Supreme Court today directed&nbsp;budget airline Spicejet to pay Rs 10 Lakh as damages to a&nbsp;flyer, suffering from cerebral palsy, who was forcibly&nbsp;offloaded in 2012, saying the manner in which she was&nbsp;deboarded depicts "total lack of sensitivity".&nbsp;
<img src="http://images.mid-day.com/images/images/2014/nov/spicejet.jpg" alt="" width="650" height="382" />
The apex court noted that the disabled flier Jeeja Ghosh&nbsp;was not given "appropriate, fair and caring treatment" which&nbsp;she required with "due sensitivity" and the decision to&nbsp;de-board her was "uncalled for".
"On our finding that SpiceJet acted in a callous manner,&nbsp;and in the process violated Rules, 1937 and Civil Aviation&nbsp;Requirements (CAR), 2008 guidelines resulting in mental and&nbsp;physical suffering experienced by Ghosh and also unreasonable&nbsp;discrimination against her, we award a sum of Rs 10,00,000 as&nbsp;damages to be payable to her," a bench comprising Justices A K&nbsp;Sikri and R K Agrawal said.
Ghosh was offloaded from a SpiceJet flight on February 19,&nbsp;2012 from Kolkata when she was going to attend a conference&nbsp;in Goa hosted by NGO ADAPT (Able Disable All People Together),&nbsp;the second petitioner in the case.
The apex court said the decision to offload Ghosh was&nbsp;taken by the airlines without any medical advise or&nbsp;consideration and her condition was not such which required&nbsp;any assistive devices or aids.
"Even if we assume that there was some blood or froth that&nbsp;was noticed to be oozing out from the sides of her mouth when&nbsp;she was seated in the aircraft (though vehemently denied by&nbsp;her), nobody even cared to interact with her and asked her the&nbsp;reason for the same.
"No doctor was summoned to examine her condition. Abruptly&nbsp;and without any justification, a decision was taken to&nbsp;deboard her without ascertaining as to whether her condition&nbsp;was such which prevented her from flying. This clearly amounts&nbsp;to violation of Rule 133-A of Rules, 1937 and the CAR, 2008&nbsp;guidelines," the bench said.
The bench, in its 54-page judgement, further said that&nbsp;differently-abled persons are unable to lead a full life due&nbsp;to societal barriers and discrimination faced by them in&nbsp;employment, access to public spaces and transportation.
"What is to be borne in mind is that they are also human&nbsp;beings and they have to grow as normal persons and are to be&nbsp;extended all facilities in this behalf. Persons with&nbsp;disability are a most neglected lot not only in the society&nbsp;but also in the family. More often, they are an object of&nbsp;pity.
"There are hardly meaningful attempts to assimilate them&nbsp;in the mainstream of the nation's life. The apathy towards&nbsp;their problems is so pervasive that even the number of&nbsp;disabled persons existing in the country is not well&nbsp;documented," the bench said.
It said that the work experience and other qualifications&nbsp;of Ghosh amply demonstrates how a person suffering from&nbsp;cerebral palsy can overcome the disability and achieve such&nbsp;distinctions in her life, notwithstanding various kinds of&nbsp;retardation and the negative attitudes which such persons have&nbsp;to face from the society.
"Ghosh is a living example who has, notwithstanding her&nbsp;disability, achieved so much in life by her sheer&nbsp;determination to overcome her disability and become a&nbsp;responsible and valuable citizen of this country.
"A little care, a little sensitivity and a little positive&nbsp;attitude on the part of the officials of the airlines would&nbsp;not have resulted in the trauma, pain and suffering that Jeeja&nbsp;Ghosh had to undergo. This has resulted in violation of her&nbsp;human dignity and, thus, her fundamental right," the bench&nbsp;said.

The Supreme Court on Thursday directed&nbsp;budget airline Spicejet to pay Rs 10 Lakh as damages to a&nbsp;flyer, suffering from cerebral palsy, who was forcibly&nbsp;offloaded in 2012, saying the manner in which she was&nbsp;deboarded depicts "total lack of sensitivity"

SC slaps Rs 10 lakh fine on Spicejet for offloading disabled flyer

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Home / News / India News / Article / SC slaps Rs 10 lakh fine on Spicejet for offloading disabled flyer

SC slaps Rs 10 lakh fine on Spicejet for offloading disabled flyer

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