New Delhi: A Bill for enhancing the rate of compensation to the air travelers in case of death, injury, lost of baggage or even inordinate delay in the flights, is today, i.e. on Friday, 11th March, cleared from the Parliament.
The Bill is actually an Amendment Bill in the name of ‘The Carriage by Air (Amendment) Bill was brought before the Lok Sabha by the Minister of Civil Aviation- Mr. P. Ashok Gajapathi Raju on 7th day of August, 2015. And it was cleared from the Lok Sabha in the month of December, 2015 and later it was tabled to Rajya Sabha from where it was passed on 2nd day of March, this year with certain amendments. However, it is also notable that the Bill along with the amendments returned back to the lower house of the parliament and there it was adopted by the voice vote.
It is now notable that the present Bill is to amend the provisions of the Carriage by Air Act, 1972 and now this amendment bill will be turned into an Act of Parliament soon it will get the nod from the President of Act.
This upcoming law would require the Indian carriers that the amount which is equivalent to the rates paid by their global counterparts to be paid as compensation. Also, the Bill is seeking to make provisions for revising the liability limits of airlines in line with the Montreal Convention, which was acceded to by India in 2009 (May).
It is also cleared in the Bill that the compensation for the death in the air accidents, the amount would be calculated on the basis of the Special Drawing Rights- SDR. And the currency value of such SDR will be based on the market exchange rates of a basket of major currencies like US dollar, Japanese Yen, Euro and Pounds Sterling. And as per current value, it is notable that One SDR is equivalent to around 93 rupees. Moreover, the Bill is also seeking to empower the Central Government to review limits of liability by every five years.