Madras High Court Asks DGCA If It'll Extend Exemption From Fatigue Management Norm Granted To Indigo

Justice V Lakshminarayan asked the DGCA to file a counter in a plea filed by a Chennai resident challenging the exemption arguing that it is illegal, void, and without keeping in mind the Civil Aviation Requirements (CAR).

“Mr.ARL.Sundaresan states that the first respondent shall go on record by way of counter affidavit on 05.01.2025. The counter shall specifically state whether the first respondent intends to extend the exemption granted on 05.12.2025 for a further period,” the court said.

It may be noted that the DGCA, in 2019, had issued Civil Aviation Requirements (CAR) in connection with flight crew standards, training, licensing. As per part 3.11 of the CAR, night duty was defined as any duty period encroaching upon any portion of the time period between 0000 hrs and 0600 hrs in the time zone to which the crew is acclimatized. As per para 6.14, for operations encroaching night duty, the maximum flight time was 8 hours and maximum flight duty period was 10 hours and maximum number of landings was limited to 2.

When the compliance to these CARs were made mandatory, it resulted in widespread crisis with Indigo flights being delayed/cancelled. Following this, the DGCA on December 5, 2025 granted exemption to Indigo from complying with the requirements with respect to a particular Class of Aircrafts.

This has been challenged in the present writ petition. The petitioner, Y. R. Rajaveni argued that the exemption was in violation to Rules and requirements.

The Additional Solicitor General appearing for DGCA submitted that the exemption was granted to Indigo considering that it was not in a position to comply with the requirements leading to large scale cancellations. It was also submitted that the DGCA was working with the airlines to ensure compliance with the requirements.

Though the petitioner had asked for a stay of the exemption, the court noted that interim relief could be granted only after hearing the airlines.

The court admitted the plea and recorded the submissions. The court also directed notice to be issued to the respondent airlines.

Counsel for Petitioner: Mr.Sanjay Ghose Senior Counsel for Mr.M.Ramesh

Counsel for Respondent: Mr.ARL.Sundaresan Addl.Solicitor General, Mr.K.B.Arun Central Government Standing Counsel

Case Title: Y. R. Rajaveni v. Director General Of Civil Aviation and Another

Case No: WP No. 50417 of 2025