SC to decide on validity of airport development fee in Nov

The Supreme Court today said it would decide on the validity of airport development fee (ADF) collected from passengers by Delhi and Mumbai airports in November and has asked consumer groups to complete their pleadings by then.

A bench comprising Justice R V Raveendran and Justice H L Gokhale said it would start final hearing in November on the legality and validity of ADF collected by Delhi International Airport (DIAL) and Mumbai International Airport (MIAL).

The apex court has directed all the concerned parties, including the two consumer organisations who have challenged ADF, to complete their pleading and to list the matter on the second week of November for final disposal.

DIAL collects Rs 200 from each domestic passenger and Rs 1,300 from each international passenger as ADF, while MIAL charges Rs 100 from domestic passengers and Rs 600 from international passengers.

On August 26, 2009, the Delhi High Court had dismissed the petitions of the two NGOs -- Consumer Online Foundation and Resources of Aviation and Redressal Association -- and held that the private airport developer can charges ADF from the passengers.

This has been challenged by the organisations before the apex court, which has issued notices to the government and the airports.

The High Court had observed that it was well within the rights of DIAL and MIAL to charge ADF and stopping them from doing so would hurt public-private partnership projects. It had further held that there was no illegality in ADF as DIAL and MIAL have obtained government's permission.

Both DIAL and MIAL have got the management of the airport under a statutory lease from the government and they are entitled to all powers of the Airports Authority of India to levy such a fee.

The High Court also held that the amended sections of the Airport Authority Act confers government's right to collect fee from the passengers of the new private airport managements (DIAL and MIAL).