The Carriage by Air (Amendment) Act of 2015 (Act no. 12 of 2016) was enacted by the Parliament of India as a Central Law with the object to further amend the provisions of the Principal Law, i.e. the Carriage by Air Act, 1972. The present Amending Act is given assent by the honourable President of India on 21st day of March, 2016. This is enacted in the 67th year of Republic of India. The present amending Act is containing only three sections, out of which the first section is providing introductory part in this Act, which is providing for the short title of the Act.
Before moving to know about the other two important provisions in this Amending Act, it is pertinent to know about the background of this Act, which is provided in the statements of Object and Reasons of the Bill in connection with this Amending Act. The Principal Act was to regulate the carriage by air and to give effect to the Warsaw Convention, 1929, its amended version by a Hague Protocol, 1955 and the Montreal Convention, 1999. The said Montreal Convention establishes airline liability in the case of death, injury or delay to passengers or in cases of delay, damage or loss of baggage and cargo. Now through this Amending Act, the revised limits of liability of the air carriers are to be provided in the Principal Act.
Thus, the provisions of this Amending Act empowers the Central Government to revise the limits of liability for airlines and compensation as per the Montreal Convention.
Moreover, the Central Government was not earlier empowered to make any rules under the Principal Act, however, it was only empowered earlier as to applicability of the given rules in the scheduled of that Act. But now, the present Amending Act seeks to add a new section 8A which will empower the Central Government to make rules for carrying out the provisions of this Act. Also, this newly inserted provision in the Principal Act also requires such rules and notifications under this Principal Act to be laid before the Houses of Parliament for rectification.
Download & Read the Bare Act: The Carriage by Air (Amendment) Act, 2015 -pdf