Supreme Court asks Centre to submit final airfare rules by November 16

The Supreme Court said on Friday the government must place before it rules it has finalised to address concerns around excessive and arbitrary fares charged by private airline operators in a month, after Solicitor General Tushar Mehta told the apex body that the rules had received approval from the administration and would be published within the fortnight.

The Court was hearing a public interest litigation, which raised issues over the pricing practices of private airlines, particularly the seemingly arbitrary variations in ticket prices that can make travel significantly more expensive for passengers. The PIL seeks greater scrutiny of pricing and measures to address this.

During a August hearing, the Surpreme Court had asked the Centre to ground airlines which fail to follow rules, even as the government mentioned that rules to regulate faires would be finalised in three weeks.


The observation came after the civil aviation ministry told SC that it had been issuing office memorandums to airlines on pricing till the rules were final. However, airlines were not following the directives, the ministry had said.

The top court had also perused the draft rules to regulate airfares that were submitted by the government in a sealed cover.

The Supreme Court has listed the matter for November 16 and directed that the rules be placed before it by then.