Delhi HC reserves order on PIL against permission to Sikhs to carry kirpans on flights

New Delhi: The Delhi High Court on Thursday said that it would pass an order on a public interest litigation (PIL) against the permission accorded to Sikhs to carry kirpans while travelling on civilian flights in India.

“Arguments heard. Order reserved. We will pass appropriate order,” said a bench headed by Chief Justice Satish Chandra Sharma on the plea by Harsh Vibhore Singhal, who claimed that a committee of stakeholders should be constituted to “apply its mind” to the issue.

The petitioner, a lawyer, had challenged a March 4, 2022 notification by the Centre which said that Sikh passengers shall have exceptional regulatory sanction to carry kirpans having blade length of no more than 6 inches and total length of no more than 9 inches while onboard any civilian flight in India operating on all domestic routes.

The bench, that also included Justice Subramonium Prasad, orally remarked that it was a policy of the government of India and the court cannot interfere with it unless it is arbitrary.

“How can we interfere with such a policy decision? We can't interfere. It is a policy decision of the government of India,” the court said.

“Your mind might not be the government's mind. Therefore when the government has applied its mind and has come with a policy, we ought not to interfere unless it is so arbitrary,” it added.

The court also refused to entertain submissions by certain parties, including MP Simranjit Singh Mann, seeking impleadment in the matter as their applications were not on record.

The petitioner contended that he was “not questioning” the right to profess and practise a religion under Article 25 of the Constitution but only wanted the constitution of a committee of stakeholders to examine the issue.

“I admit that Article 25 allows the carriage of a kirpan. But when you are flying, the regulator must apply its mind. I want a constitution of a committee of stakeholders to examine the issue. If the committee feels that the notification is good, so be it. Not a problem,” he said.

The petitioner also said that as per the counter affidavit by the Bureau of Civil Aviation Security, it has not formulated the policy but was following what the government has said.

He also clarified that his intention was not to give the matter a political overtone.

Counsel for the respondents, lawyer Anjana Gosain, said that safety measures, including stationing of marshals, have been put in place by the authorities,.

On August 18, the court had refused to pass an interim order staying the operation of the decision allowing Sikhs to carry kirpans having a blade length of up to six inches while travelling on domestic flights.

The petitioner has sought the constitution of a committee to examine “workable solutions” to ensure that a kirpan permitted to be carried on the flight is “appropriately designed and crafted” and does not have a blade length beyond 4 cm.

The petition has said that permitting kirpans on flights, in terms of the presently permissible dimensions, has “dangerous ramifications for aviation safety” and “if kirpans are deemed safe only because of religion, one wonders how knitting/crochet needles, coconuts, screwdrivers, and small pen knives, etc are deemed hazardous and prohibited.” “Regardless of a contrary perception, a kirpan remains a blade used in hundreds of homicides with scores of murder cases adjudicated by even the Supreme Court. Thus, kirpans can cause havoc in the skies reducing aviation safety to a nullity,” said the petition.

The petition has contended that the regulatory permission is bad in law, mauls civil aviation safety protocols as well as international conventions, and has been promulgated without application of mind in spite of several aviation hijacking in the past.

The plea has added that the petitioner was “concerned at the whimsical and nonchalant manner” in which the authorities “flippantly and most complacently shrugged off historical lessons surrounding civil aviation safety and security protocols by giving a blanket regulatory approval to unrestricted and unsupervised carriage of dangerous articles on person of a certain section of air travellers (based upon religion).” “While the exception made for Sikh travellers limits the length of a kirpan to maximum blade length of 15.24 cms (6'') with a total length of 22.86 cms (9") including hilt length of 3 inches, it is silent on the maximum width and thickness of the blade starting at the hilt and tapering gradually till the pointed tip.

"It is a matter of elementary physics that a blade with a narrow width at the base is less lethal in capacity to pierce, chop, cut or slice as compared to thicker broader bases gradually tapering to the pointed tips,” the plea has said.