Supreme Court Dismisses PIL Seeking Curbs On Urban Development Around Airports After Ahmedabad Air India Crash

The Bench of Chief Justice of India Surya Kant and Justice V. Mohana declined to entertain the plea, observing that issues relating to aviation safety and urban planning fall within the domain of policymakers and experts.

"We are not scientists. The policy makers are there for this," CJI Surya Kant remarked while dismissing the petition.

The PIL had been filed in the aftermath of the June 12, 2025 crash involving Air India's Boeing 787 aircraft bearing registration VT-ANB. According to the petition, the aircraft, operating Flight AI171 from Ahmedabad to London's Gatwick Airport, crashed moments after take-off at approximately 0809 UTC.

The plea filed though AoR Laxmikant Shukla stated that the aircraft went down within seconds of departing from Ahmedabad's Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel International Airport and crashed at a site near B.J. Medical College. The tragedy resulted in the deaths of 230 passengers, 10 cabin crew members and two pilots. Additionally, 19 resident doctors and medical students lost their lives as the crash site lay within the aircraft's trajectory and in close proximity to the airport.

Describing the accident as one that plunged the nation into grief, the petitioner contended that the deaths of medical students and doctors had brought into sharp focus the issue of dense urban development around airports and the risks it poses to public safety.

The petition sought judicial intervention to revisit safety norms governing construction and land use in airport peripheral zones across India. It argued that the Ahmedabad crash exposed an urgent need to examine whether rapid urban expansion around airports was adequately regulated.

Emphasising the primacy of public safety, the plea relied on the maxim of Roman philosopher Marcus Tullius Cicero: "The safety of the people shall be the highest law."

The petition further cited observations of former Union Pacific Railroad President William M. Jeffers that safety, in its widest sense, concerns "the happiness, contentment and freedom of mankind". It also referred to former US President Calvin Coolidge's statement that "nothing is of greater importance than the conservation of human life."

The petitioner had urged the Court to consider the broader implications of permitting institutional and residential infrastructure to develop in areas adjoining airports and sought directions aimed at preventing similar tragedies in the future.

The Supreme Court, however, refused to enter into questions of policy, holding that such matters are best left to scientific experts and policymakers, and dismissed the PIL.