Click the Play button to listen to article

The Delhi High Court today refused to entertain a plea against the closure of Visakhapatnam Airport for commercial flights.

A division bench comprising Chief Justice DK Upadhyaya and Justice Tejas Karia said that the petitioner, Gopala Krishna Kosaraju, should approach the Andhra Pradesh High Court raising his grievance.

The Court remarked that the dominant cause of action is in Visakhapatnam.

The Vishakhapatnam airport permanently ceased scheduled commercial flight operations at midnight on August 16, with all commercial services shifting to the new Alluri Sitarama Raju International Airport at Bhogapuram.

As the counsel appearing for Kosaraju said that the decision to close the airport was taken in the national capital and urged for issuance of notice, the Court said:

“Where is the order impacting people?….When parts of the cause of action are in two high courts, it is the dominant high court which determines the forum…..File it there (Andhra Pradesh High Court).”

Noting that a similar PIL raising the same issue is already pending adjudication before the Andhra Pradesh High Court, the Court dismissed the plea on the ground of forum non conveniens.

“Suffering was of people of Visakhapatnam, not Delhi," the Court told the petitioner's counsel.

It was Kosaraju's case that the authorities have shut down the Vizag airport in an “arbitrary and high-handed manner.”

In his PIL, he asserted that while the creation of state-of-the-art infrastructure at Bhogapuram was a welcome step, the absolute 30-year operational ban on an existing, fully functional and centrally located public airport was arbitrary and unreasonable.

The plea asserted that more than Rs 250 crores of public money was invested by the Airports Authority of India (AAI) in developing the Vizag terminal and airside infrastructure in recent years.

It added that rendering the asset idle for scheduled commercial use to guarantee commercial exclusivity to a private operator violated Public Trust Doctrine.

Title: Gopala Krishna Kosaraju v. Union of India & Ors

Tags: