Read Time: 04 minutes

Synopsis

The Delhi High Court sought a response from the Centre and the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) on Thursday in response to a petition challenging a notification allowing Sikhs to carry kirpans with blade lengths of up to six inches on domestic flights.

A division bench of Chief Justice Satish Chandra Sharma and Justice Subramonium Prasad also declined to issue an interim stay on the Centre’s March 4, 2002 notification.

The petition was filed by Advocate Harsh Vibhore Singhal who stated that allowing kirpans on flights 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 popular belief, a kirpan has been used in hundreds of homicides, with scores of murder cases adjudicated by the Supreme Court. Thus, kirpans can wreak havoc in the skies, rendering aviation safety null and void," the plea stated.

Singhal expressed concerns 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 blanket regulatory approval to the unrestricted and unsupervised carriage of dangerous articles on the person of a certain section of air travelers (based upon religion).

"While the exception made for Sikh travelers limits the length of a kirpan to a maximum blade length of 15.24 cms (6") with a total length of 22.86 cms (9") including hilt length of 3, it is silent on the maximum width and thickness of the blade beginning at the hilt and tapering gradually till the pointed tip,” the plea read.

"It is a matter of elementary physics that a blade with a narrow width at the base is less lethal in its capacity to pierce, chop, cut, or slice than a blade with a thicker broader base gradually tapering to the pointed tips," the plea added.

Case Title: Harsh Vibhore Singhal v. The Cabinet Secretary Government of India & Ors.

[Inputs: The Hindu]