No Communication Between Govt and Airlines Before Kunal Kamra was Banned, Says Minister

New Delhi: The civil aviation ministry on Thursday said no communication was made with IndiGo and Air India before any restriction was imposed by them on stand-up comedian Kunal Kamra.

On January 28, Kamra was banned by IndiGo from flying with the airline for six months for allegedly heckling a private TV news anchor. The ban period was later reduced to three months.

"No communication was made by the government with the airlines before any restriction was imposed on the passenger referred to in the question," Minister of State for Civil Aviation Hardeep Singh Puri said in a written reply to the Lok Sabha.

He was responding to a query by Trinamool Congress lawmaker Prasun Banerjee seeking details of communication the government had with IndiGo/ Air India before restrictions were imposed on a comedian recently.

The member and the minister did not specifically mention the name of Kamra.

Soon after IndiGo announced travel curbs on Kamra, Puri had tweeted, "Offensive behaviour designed to provoke & create disturbance inside an aircraft is absolutely unacceptable & endangers the safety of air travellers.

"We are left with no option but to advise other airlines to impose similar restrictions on the person concerned".

Following the minister's tweet, Air India, GoAir and SpiceJet later also announced travel restrictions on Kamra. However, they did not specify the period for which the stand-up comedian was being barred from taking their flights.

In the written reply on Thursday, Puri also said IndiGo has informed that they had referred the matter to its "Internal Committee" in terms of certain provisions under the DGCA norms for dealing with unruly passengers for adjudication upon receipt of a complaint by pilot-in-command of the flight.

IndiGo has also informed DGCA that the airline has placed the passenger in the 'No-Fly List' for a period of three months for indulging in Level-1 unruly behaviour from taking any IndiGo flight to/ from/ within or outside India from January 28, 2020, as per the reply.

The reduction in ban period was informed by the airline to the Delhi High Court on February 28.

Kamra had moved the court challenging the flying ban against him by four airlines.