D

Future Chief Justice Vikram Nath’s absurd, off-the-cuff remark, “don’t travel by air,” becomes less surprising if you looked at the record in a pending petition challenging arbitrary airline tariffs (S. Laxminarayanan vs. Union of India). Tough remarks in open court. Bench led by Justice Nath called festival fares “exploitation” and said it would “interfere.” But you don’t see anything in the judicial orders passed in the matter. In fact, every hearing has ended with more time for the government (one Diwali to another). In May, the petitioner pointed out that the old rules already empowered DGCA to act against “excessive or predatory” fares. The Court never decided the point and chose instead to wait for new rules. In August, it read the draft rules in a “sealed cover” and returned them without comment. Those rules, now notified, delete the “excessive or predatory” power, reduce DGCA to merely “monitoring” fares, and allow the Centre to intervene only in an “extraordinary situation” (vague, arbitrary). So, what happened here. Court was asked to enforce a power against excessive fares, and nearly a year later we have a rule that removes it. Btw, this adds to a growing body of examples where the Court decides in favor of the executive simply by not deciding, because delay helps the executive