DGCA suspends 2 Jet pilots for Riyadh incident
Mumbai, Aug 6 : The Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) has suspended two pilots of a Jet Airways flight which overshot the runway at Riyadh prior to take off on August 3, an official said on Monday.
"The DGCA has suspended the licence of both the pilots involved in the runway excursion incident at Riyadh, pending investigations," said a top DGCA official on Monday.
According to a Jet Airways statement, the incident occurred early on Friday when Flight 9W-523 aborted take-off and departed the runway at the King Khalid International Airport in the Saudi Arabian capital.
There were no casualties and all the 142 passengers and seven crew members of the Mumbai-bound flight were evacuated safely and later flew to India.
The Aviation Investigation Bureau (AIB) of Saudi Arabia has said that the Jet Airways Boeing 737 aircraft attempted to take-off from the taxiway K, parallel to Runway R33.
"While visibility was high and no obstacles or FOD (foreign object debris) were on the taxiway, the aircraft accelerated with full take-off power and exceeded the taxiway, onto the unpaved area ending up close to the exit of taxiway G4, north of taxiway K," an AIB statement said.
The AIB is probing the incident jointly with the Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau of India. Jet had earlier said it had reported the matter to the DGCA.
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May initiate contempt action if states, UTs non compliant against misleading ads: SC
New Delhi (PTI): The Supreme Court on Wednesday warned states and union territories of contempt action if they failed to act against misleading advertisements.
A bench of Justices Abhay S Oka and Ujjal Bhuyan perused a note submitted by senior advocate Shadan Farasat, who is assisting the apex court as an amicus curiae in the matter, and observed a number of states were non-compliant as indicated in the note.
"We make it clear that if we find non-compliance by any of the states and union territories, we may have to initiate proceedings under the Contempt of Courts Act, 1971, against the states concerned," the bench said.
The issue pertaining to misleading advertisements had cropped up before the top court while hearing a plea filed by the Indian Medical Association in 2022 alleging a smear campaign by Patanjali Ayurved Ltd against the Covid vaccination drive and modern systems of medicine.
The top court had highlighted the aspect of misleading advertisements being published or displayed in media contrary to the provisions of the Drugs and Magic Remedies (Objectionable Advertisements) Act, 1954 and the rules, the Drugs and Cosmetics Act, 1940, and the Consumer Protection Act, 1986.
During the hearing on Wednesday, the amicus said as per the affidavits filed by the states and union territories so far, virtually no prosecution under the 1954 Act was taking place.
While Section 3 of the Act deals with prohibition of advertisement of certain drugs for treatment of certain diseases and disorders, Section 4 relates to prohibition of misleading advertisements of drugs.
The bench referred to affidavits filed by some of the states and questioned why they hadn't acted on the basis of complaints received.
Some states, it noted, found it difficult to identify the violaters.
"We will take contempt action now," the bench said, "and we will threadbare examine the compliance made by each states."
The bench said it would consider the compliance made by Andhra Pradesh, Delhi, Goa, Gujarat and Jammu and Kashmir on February 10.
And if these states wanted to file further affidavits reporting compliance, they were free to do so by February 3, it added.
The bench said compliance by states including Jharkhand, Karnataka, Kerala, Madhya Pradesh and Punjab would be considered on February 24.
It said compliance regarding other states and union territories would be considered on March 17.
While hearing the matter in July last year, the apex court said the Ministry of Ayush should set up a dashboard to make available to the consumers the details about the complaints filed on misleading advertisements and the progress made on them.
In April last year, the top court asked the Centre and state licensing authorities to "activate" themselves to deal with misleading advertisements.
