COVID-19: HC moved for stopping chartered flights operations to repatriate foreigners

A petition has been filed in the Delhi High Court seeking directions to the Centre and Air India to discontinue chartered flights being operated to repatriate foreign nationals to their respective countries during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The petition also contended that these chartered flights were returning empty after dropping foreign nationals and were not bringing back Indian citizens stranded abroad.

The plea was heard on Wednesday by a bench of justices J R Midha and Jyoti Singh via video-conferencing, but the order was yet to be uploaded on the high court's website.

The petition by Vaibhav Sharma also claimed that pilots and cabin crew of these charter flights were not being provided personal protection equipment, but were being put in 14-day home quarantine after they return to India.

The plea, filed through advocate H S Nanda, has also claimed that putting the pilots and cabin crew on home quarantine would endanger lives of their family members.

It has sought that the pilots and cabin crew be quarantined in hotels for the mandatory 14 days, so that there is no danger of their families getting infected by coronavirus.