The Delhi High Court on Wednesday declined to entertain a public interest litigation challenging the closure of commercial operations at Visakhapatnam airport, ruling that the petitioner should approach the Andhra Pradesh High Court instead.
A Division Bench of Chief Justice Devendra Kumar Upadhyaya and Justice Tejas Karia dismissed the petition filed by Gopala Krishna Kosaraju on the ground of forum convenience. The court granted him liberty to move the jurisdictional high court.
The plea sought to challenge the decision to discontinue scheduled commercial flight operations from the old Visakhapatnam airport, which has been shifted to the newly inaugurated Alluri Sitarama Raju International Airport at Bhogapuram.
Court's Reasoning
During the hearing, Advocate Pranav Sachdeva, appearing for the petitioner, argued that the new airport is located around 60 kilometres from Visakhapatnam city and that passengers were facing difficulties due to poor connectivity.
"There is no connectivity, and the people are suffering," the counsel submitted, adding that the existing airport was built with thousands of crores of rupees.
The petitioner's counsel further contended that the authorities had acted arbitrarily in shutting down commercial operations at the existing airport, instead of allowing both airports to function. He argued that shifting all commercial flights to an airport located around 60 kilometres away, requiring nearly two hours of travel from parts of Visakhapatnam, had caused inconvenience to passengers.
The Bench, however, pointed out that the persons affected by the decision are residents of Visakhapatnam and that the dominant cause of action had arisen in Andhra Pradesh. "The sufferers are in Visakhapatnam," the Court observed, asking the petitioner to approach the Andhra Pradesh High Court.
The court also noted that a PIL on the issue is pending in the Andhra Pradesh High Court.
Background of the Airport Shift
Visakhapatnam Airport ceased scheduled commercial flights on August 16, following the departure of the last flight, IndiGo 6E 2018 to Delhi, at 10.45 pm. The IATA airport code 'VTZ' was transferred from Visakhapatnam Airport to the new airport at Bhogapuram with effect from August 17.
On July 28, the Union Aviation Ministry had announced that all scheduled commercial flight operations at Visakhapatnam Airport shall cease after August 16 for a period of 30 years.
The move to discontinue operations followed the inauguration of the Alluri Sitarama Raju International Airport at Bhogapuram on August 1. All scheduled passenger flight services have since been shifted to the new airport, while INS Dega continues to remain operational for military and non-scheduled purposes.
The old airport at INS Dega had handled scheduled commercial flights for several decades before such operations were discontinued last month.
The PIL had argued that more than Rs 250 crore of public money was invested by the Airports Authority of India (AAI) in developing the Vizag terminal and airside infrastructure in recent years. The plea stated: "Rendering this asset idle for scheduled commercial use to guarantee commercial exclusivity to a private operator violates the Public Trust Doctrine."