No repeat of such occurrence: AAI assures Bombay HC on Amit Shah's airport meeting

The Airport Authority of India (AAI) on Monday submitted a written undertaking before a divisional bench of the Bombay High Court for allowing Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) president Amit Shah to hold a party meeting within the premises of the Dabolim International Airport in Goa on July 1.

In the undertaking filed on oath, the Director of AAI Dabolim, Bhupesh Negi, stated that the Airport authorities will ensure that in future no such occurrence ever takes place under any circumstances and that the airport area and its precincts will not be used for any such occurrence.

Accepting the undertaking submitted by the AAI, the Court disposed the petition filed by advocate Aires Rodrigues.

Advocate Aires Rodrigues, in his petition, said that for the first time ever, a public meeting was organised by a political party within the high security precincts of an airport. Rodrigues sought a thorough probe into the manner in which the meeting was allowed to be conducted on July 1 at the Dabolim Airport, which functions out of an Indian Naval Base, INS Hansa.

Submitting photographs of Amit Shah's public meeting at the Airport, Adv. Rodrigues in his petition further stated that the BJP, which organised that public meeting on one hand falsely claimed that all necessary permissions to hold that public meeting were obtained, while at the same time also stating that the meeting was not pre-planned, but spontaneous.

However, the BJP, as well as the AAI, had maintained that the meeting was spontaneous in nature and therefore, the question of seeking permission did not arise.

The court had, however, questioned the presence of a podium, chairs, music system, which it said, was indicative that the July 1 meeting was an organised affair.