Finalise draft policy for naming airports after cities: Bombay HC to Centre

The Bombay high court (HC) has directed the civil aviation ministry to finalise the draft policy which proposes to name and rename airports after the cities they are located in, after it was informed that the policy had been pending for a long time.

Referring to the recent protests held at Navi Mumbai by various groups demanding that the upcoming international airport be named after the personality of their choice, the petitioner filed a public interest litigation (PIL) saying it was against national interest and created unnecessary law and order situations, hence the system of naming and renaming airports after persons belonging to political or ideological groups should be discontinued.

After hearing the petitioner, the bench observed that as the issue was pending since many years, the new aviation minister should take up the issue on an urgent basis and expedite the finalisation of the policy.

The division bench of chief justice Dipankar Datta and justice Girish Kulkarni, while hearing the PIL filed by advocate Filji Frederick, was informed that news reports had indicated that a large number of airports in the country were going to be renamed after historical and political personalities.

This, he said, would create a lot of confusion especially among foreign tourists and hence the court should direct the Union civil aviation ministry to frame a policy for naming and renaming of airports and not to act on the proposals of various states for naming and renaming airports in their respective states.

The PIL also sought restraining directions to the state from taking steps towards finalising the name of the upcoming international airport at Navi Mumbai till the ministry framed a policy.

While making submissions, Frederick drew the attention of the court to the recent protests over naming of Navi Mumbai airport. He submitted that while one group had organised a human chain of 40,000 persons demanding naming of the airport after a local leader, another group had gathered nearly 25,000 persons demanding naming the airport after the personality they wanted.

Frederick submitted that the second gathering had flouted Covid-19 norms and refusal of permission to conduct the protest.

The HC pulled up the state for permitting such a congregation during the pandemic and also directed the newly-appointed panel of the aviation ministry to treat this issue on an urgent basis and expedite the finalisation of the policy.

The PIL also refers to the March 13, 2018 announcement by the aviation minister about the draft policy guidelines for naming of airports had been formulated.

Frederick’s PIL states that on June 10, he sought information under the Right to Information (RTI) Act from the ministry, seeking information about the outcome of a 2016 decision wherein naming airports as per city names rather than names of personalities was considered. The petitioner also sought information on the status of the draft policy for naming and renaming of airports.

“It was widely decided that airports will be named after the city as then there is always this issue of people fighting over deciding on a name. It was considered that existing names will not be changed but new airports will be named as per their cities. It is not a written policy. It is only a procedure that is followed and there is a draft policy but nothing is finalised as yet, which needs to happen on urgent basis,” states the PIL.

Thereafter, the court asked additional solicitor general Anil Singh to respond to the plea and said, “We would like to know the present position of the draft policy. We took the state government to task over the issue of naming the airport as there was a gathering violating Covid-19 protocols with nearly 25,000 people, who were protesting over naming of Navi Mumbai airport.”

The bench referred to the newly appointed panel of ministers and said, “You have a new set of ministers now. Let the new aviation ministry take up the finalisation of the draft policy as the first thing to do.” Seeking a response from the civil aviation ministry, the HC posted further hearing to next week.