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Apex court bars airlines from charging transaction fees

[email protected] (DHNS)
January 24, 2013

court_apexNew Delhi, Jan 24: In a relief to air passengers, the Supreme Court on Wednesday barred all airlines from charging transaction fees from flyers.

A bench of justices D K Jain and Madan B Lokur also pulled up the Director General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) for failing to ensure that the passengers were not burdened with such charges.

Air passengers are made to pay transaction fees varying between three to six per cent of the total fare by travel agents for booking flights.

The bench also expressed displeasure over the DGCA failing to enforce its December 17 circular, restraining the airlines from levying transaction fees. The court said its restraint order will be in operation until the appellate authority takes a call on the matter, since the Federation of Indian Airlines had challenged the validity of the circular before the secretary of the Civil Aviation Ministry.

Representing FIA, senior counsel U U Lalit submitted that the airlines had approached the Delhi High Court on Tuesday, which had told them to approach the appellate authority, besides directing that no coercive action will be taken against them by the DGCA.

The apex court brushed aside the plea saying that there was no stay on the circular.

“But it does not mean that you can continue charging. There is no stay of the circular. We are of the view that the December 17 circular is still in force. Hence, transaction fee cannot be charged as a part of the total fare. You can not start charging it again under a different nomenclature,” the court said.

During the hearing, the bench also directed the DGCA to examine the tariff structure and how the base fare was being charged even though a ticket was booked seven days in advance.

“There are several bands for fixing the base price which in certain cases range from Rs 1,120 to Rs 36,000. We are of prima facie view that regarding wide range of basic fair, it will be necessary for the DGCA to examine the tariff structure of the airlines,” the bench said.

It also noted that there were no criteria with regard to fare bands and no transparency on availability of seats.

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Agencies
February 5,2020

New Delhi, Feb 5: Delhi High Court on Wednesday stated that that death warrant of all convicts in the Nirbhaya gangrape and murder case should be executed together.

The Delhi prison rules do not state whether when the mercy petition of one convict is pending, the execution of the other convicts can take place and from the trial court to Supreme Court all convicts have been held by a common order and a common judgment, Justice Suresh Kumar Kait observed while passing the order.

High Court dismissed the Central government and Tihar Jail authorities plea challenging the Patiala House court's order, which stayed the execution of the four convicts in the case. It also observed that the convicts indulged in a heinous offence of a bone-chilling rape and murder of a girl and that criminal appeals by all convicts were dismissed by the courts.

Moreover, the court observed that the review petitions were filed after long wait and convicts are taking shelter of Article 21 which is available to them till their last breath.

A single-judge bench of Justice Suresh Kumar Kait had on Sunday kept the order reserved in the matter after special hearing of two days.

Earlier, Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, appearing on behalf of the Centre, alleged that the convicts were deliberately delaying the execution, adding that any delay in death sentence will have a dehumanising effect on the convicts.

A Delhi court last week stayed till further orders the execution of the four convicts -- Akshay Thakur, Mukesh Singh, Pawan Gupta, and Vinay Sharma -- which was earlier scheduled to take place on February 1.

The case pertains to the gang-rape and brutal murder of a 23-year-old paramedical student in a moving bus on the night of December 16, 2012, by six people, including a juvenile, in Delhi. The woman had died at a Singapore hospital a few days later.

One of the five adults accused, Ram Singh, had allegedly committed suicide in the Tihar Jail during the trial of the case.

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News Network
July 19,2020

New Delhi, Jul 19: With the highest single-day spike of 38,902 cases reported in the last 24 hours, India's total COVID-19 tally on Sunday reached 10,77,618, informed the Union Health and Family Welfare Ministry on Sunday.

The death toll has gone up to 26,816 with 543 fatalities reported in the last 24 hours.

The Health Ministry said the total number of cases includes 3,73,379 active cases and 6,77,423 patients have been cured/discharged/migrated.

Maharashtra remains the worst affected state with 3,00,937 cases reported until Saturday.
Meanwhile, as per the information provided by the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), 1,34,33,742 samples have been tested for COVID-19 till July 18, of these 3,61,024 samples were tested yesterday.

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Agencies
February 4,2020

The government suspended all the India-bound air travel from China and has declared all visas 'invalid', on Monday, due to the rapid escalation of cases of novel coronavirus outbreak which originated in Wuhan.

"Embassy and our Consulates have been receiving several queries from Chinese citizens as well as other foreign nationals, who are based out of China or visited China in the last 2 weeks, as to whether they can use their valid single/multiple entry visas to travel to India," tweeted the Embassy of India in Beijing, China.

"It is clarified that existing visas are no longer valid. Intending visitors to India should contact the Indian Embassy in Beijing ([email protected]) or the Consulates in Shanghai ([email protected]) and Guangzhou ([email protected]) to apply afresh for an Indian visa," it said.

Further, regarding the validity of visas, the embassy said, "Indian Visa Application Centres (http://blsindia-china.com) in these cities may also be contacted in this regard. Visa Section of the Embassy/Consulates of India in China can be contacted to ascertain the validity of visa before undertaking any visit to India."

"All those who are already in India (with regular or e-visa) and had traveled from China after January 15 are requested to contact the hotline number of Ministry of Health and Family Welfare of Government of India (+91-11-23978046 and email: [email protected])," the embassy said.

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