Recently, Ministry of Civil
Aviation (Government of India) has issued a Consultation
Paper on “Ombudsman for Civil Aviation”. The paper has been
issued to explore the possibility of creating
an alternative dispute
settlement mechanism for Aviation sector in India. If established, the
same would serve as an effective grievance redressal for passengers and other
stakeholders.
The paper has been divided into six chapters with
last chapter enlisting the Issues for Discussions. The issues,
as enumerated in Chapter 6, are as follows:
(i) Whether there is sufficient legal basis for the Central govt.
to take measures
for protecting the
interests of consumers
including creating alternative
dispute settlement machinery
like Ombudsman without
resorting to amendment of the Aircraft Act, 1934?
(ii) Whether inclusion of disputes between users of
airports like cargo agents and the
airport operator/ custodian/
ground handling agent/carrier
etc under the domain of Ombudsman will be consistent with
the provisions of AERA Act?
