Kochi, September 30: A petition requesting the Kerala High Court to review its earlier order giving Air India (AI) a free hand in settling the compensation for Mangalore air crash was dismissed on Thursday.
On August 25, a division bench headed by Justice CN Ramachandran and Justice PS Gopinathan had quashed the earlier single bench order asking AI to pay Rs 75 lakh as compensation for each of the deceased, while dismissing another appeal by relatives who maintained that the Rs 75 lakh compensation ordered to each of them was not enough.
Only seven passengers survived after an AI Express flight from Dubai with 166 passengers crashed after overshooting the runway at Mangalore's Bajpe airport in May last year.
The review petition was filed by Arikkad Abdul Salam from Kumble, whose son died in the accident, after the division bench not only
declined their contention that Rs 75 lakh is the minimum compensation but also declared invalid the single bench order that ordered for Rs 75 lakh to be paid as compensation.
After the division bench order in favour of AI was announced, some of the relatives of victims have moved towards settling for the first available offer from the company.
Patricia, a relative of a victim, had approached the HC with a petition for a direction to allow her to accept the admitted amount of Rs 35 lakh as compensation.
The division bench had found that compensation is unlimited in air crashes, as claimed by the relatives, but ruled that carriers are liable to pay only for actual damages proved by the claimants as per Montreal Convention of 1999.
The single bench order was quashed after the court noticed that the air carrier has paid an average compensation of Rs 80 lakh for death, with minimum compensation of Rs 25 lakh and maximum compensation being Rs 7.75 crore.
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