SC questions Centre, AAI on airport development fee

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Friday issued notices to the Centre and others asking them to explain why they should be allowed to charge the development fee at the Delhi airport. Acting on a petition by a consumer rights group, a Bench headed by Justice R V Raveendran sought reply from the Ministry of Civil Aviation, Airports Authority of India (AAI) and the Delhi International Airport Ltd (DIAL) as to why the the airport should be allowed to levy such a fee on its passengers. Consumer Online Foundation in its petition said DIAL, which is the lessee of AAI, had no jurisdiction to charge the fees and it was doing so without any authority. Both the Delhi and the Mumbai airports have been charging Rs 200 from outgoing domestic and Rs 1,300 from international passengers since March 1 this year. The consumer organisation said DIAL does not have the power to levy and collect such charges for a period of three years and the same violated the provisions of the Airport Authority of India Act, 1994. "DIAL is exacting and realising an utterly illegal development fee without the sanction and authority of law, the matter is ... involving crucial issues of public monies," the petition stated. Developmental fee was entirely illegal and "hefty money to the tune of Rs 1827 crore has been permitted from the public without the sanction of law, by way of mere letters," it added.

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