28 March 2024, Kathmandu: Hearing a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) filed by Advocacy Forum-Nepal’s Lumbini Province Senior Coordinator Basanta Gautam and others, High Court Tulsipur, Nepalgunj Bench issued an interim order on 27 March 2024 against Nepalgunj Airport Civil Aviation Office and other respondents to display the price list mandatorily in the airport canteen and prohibit the sale of tobacco products inside the airport premises.
The division bench of Judges Kiran Kumari Gupta and Basanta Raj Poudel issued the interim order.
Petitioning lawyers had requested the court to issue a certiorari and mandamus order against the respondents to uphold aviation governance, protect consumers’ rights and assure quality services. The court can issue additional order against the respondents as requested by the petitioners.
The lawyers in the PIL have raised the issues of arbitrary fixing of prices of the food and beverage items in the airport canteen, food and drink quality, limited number of trolleys and reduction of facilities to passengers.
Besides Gautam, Senior Advocate Sunil Kumar Shrestha, Advocates Bikash Acharya, Lok Bahadur Shah, Bal Bahadur Chand, Bishwajit Tiwari, Sunita Sharma, Civil Society Nepalgunj Chairman Krishna Prasad Shrestha, INSEC Province Coordinator Bhola Mahat jointly filed the petition.
Respondents in the case included Nepalgunj Airport Civil Aviation Office, Chief Officer, Sarthak Trade Centre and Suppliers, different airlines companies including Buddha, Yeti, Shree, Sita, Tara, Summit and Guna, Nepal Airlines Corporation Branch Office Nepalgunj, District Administration Office Banke and others.
