Delhi High Court Refuses To Entertain Plea To Remove "VT" Mark From Indian Aircrafts

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Synopsis

The plea was filed seeking direction of the court to change Call Sign VT written on Indian Aircrafts which stands for Victorian Territory and Viceroy Territory and is a legacy of the British Raj in India. 

The Delhi High Court has refused to entertain Advocate Ashwini Kumar Upadhyay's plea for removal of the "Victorian Territory" sign from Indian aircrafts. 

A Division Bench of Chief Justice Satish Chandra Sharma and Justice Subramaniam Prasad refused to entertain the petition saying that such issues cannot be dealt with by the court and only the Government can act on such requests. 

At this point, Ashwini Kumar Upadhyay took the liberty to withdraw the said petition, which was granted by the court. 

The petition was filed by Upadhyay under Article 226 of the Constitution, seeking writ/order/direction of the court to change Call Sign VT written on Indian Aircrafts which stands for Victorian Territory and Viceroy Territory and is a legacy of the British Raj in India. 

The petition argued that the code is generally seen before the rear exit door and above the windows. All domestic airlines have the prefix, which is followed by unique alphabets that define the aircraft and who it belongs to. For eg:- on Indigo flights the registration VT is followed by IDV, i.e., VT-IDV, for Jet it is VT-JMV. Such a prefix marks that the aircraft has been registered in India.

Britain set the prefix "VT" for all the colonies in 1929 but countries like China, Pakistan, Nepal, Sri Lanka, changed their Call Signs after independence. India, on the other hand, allowed the said prefix to remain even after 93 years.

"..which offends Sovereignty, Rule of Law (Article 14), Right to Freedom (Article 19) and Right to Dignity (Article 21)", the petition argued. 

Case Title:- Ashwini Kumar Upadhyay v Union of India