New Delhi: The Delhi High Court Thursday refused to pass an interim order staying the operation of the decision allowing Sikhs to carry kirpans having a blade length of up to six inches while travelling on domestic flights.
"No stay," said a bench of Chief Justice Satish Chandra Sharma and Justice Subramonium Prasad while seeking the stand of the Centre and the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) on public interest litigation (PIL) challenging the March 4, 2022 notification in this regard.
The bench asked the respondents to file their response to the petition which seeks the constitution of a committee to examine workable solutions to ensure that a kirpan permitted to be carried on the flight is appropriately designed and crafted and does not have a blade length beyond 4 cm.
The petition by lawyer Harsh Vibhore Singhal said that permitting kirpans on flights, in terms of the presently permissible dimensions, has dangerous ramifications for aviation safety and if kirpans are deemed safe only because of religion, one wonders how knitting/crochet needles, coconuts, screwdrivers, and small pen knives, etc. are deemed hazardous and prohibited .
Regardless of a contrary perception, a kirpan remains a blade used in hundreds of homicides with scores of murder cases adjudicated by even the Supreme Court.