Mangalore, September 18: The members of Mangalore Air India crash victims' Families Association have demanded the government to appoint a special judge to hear the compensation case between Air India and the legal heirs of victims of last year's aviation disaster.
A meeting organised by the Association here on Sunday to discuss its next course of action, concluded with a resolution to go ahead with the legal battle for a 'just compensation'.
The meeting comes in the wake of recent judgement of a divisional bench of the Kerala High Court, which overturned a single judge's verdict holding that Air India was bound to pay a minimum compensation of one-lakh Special Drawing Right (SDR), roughly Rs.75 lakh, each to the legal heirs of the victims.
The single judge's verdict had come on a writ petition filed by Kasargod based Abdul Salam, whose 24 year old son B Mohammed Rafi was killed in the crash.
Abdul Salam's lawyer Kodoth Sreedharan, who was present at the meeting, said that the former has already filed a petition before Kerala High Court seeking to review its recent judgment upholding Air India's appeal.
“The judgment on review petition is expected soon, following which we will decide on our next course of action after” Mr Sreedharan said, adding that if the judgment remained unchanged, the door of apex court is always open.
He pointed out that the divisional bench's judgment ignored the convention, statutes and principles of no fault liability. “It (judgment) defies basic common sense,'' he added.
Soon after the divisional bench's judgment on review petition, the Association would convene another meeting to take a final decision, said Mohammad Beary, president of the Association.
“In Sunday's meeting, the Association has taken few important decisions including demanding the government to appoint a special judge to hear this case”, he said.
Stating that Abdul Salam's case is crucial for the Association, he said all the legal heirs of crash victims would move the apex court, if it was necessary, as it would be difficult for a single person to take the legal battle against mighty Air India to the highest level.
The Association has urged all the legal heirs of the crash victims to come forward to share the expenses required to continue the legal battle.
Till date, the AI counsel has settled 62 cases and partially settled six claims at Rs 50.96 crore. Of the 62 cases, 22 have been settled for more than one lakh SDR. In the rest of the cases below one lakh SDR there are children also.
An Air India Express flight from Dubai overshot the Mangalore table-top runway and fell off a cliff while landing on May 22, 2010, killing 158 people. The flight's cockpit voice recorder data showed that the instrument had picked up snoring sounds indicating that the Serbian pilot Captain Zlatko Glusica had slept off for about 90 minutes and failed to pull up the plane after it lost control. He also ignored advice of his co-pilot.
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