Delhi High Court Refuses Plea on Visakhapatnam Airport Closure
The Delhi High Court on Wednesday declined to entertain a public interest litigation challenging the closure of Visakhapatnam Airport to commercial flights, directing the petitioner to approach the Andhra Pradesh High Court instead.
A Bench of Chief Justice D.K. Upadhyaya and Justice Tejas Karia observed that the dominant cause of action arose in Visakhapatnam and pointed out that a related petition was already pending before the Andhra Pradesh High Court. The Bench dismissed the petition on the principle of forum non conveniens, while granting the petitioner liberty to pursue the case before the Andhra Pradesh High Court.
During the hearing, the Bench questioned the territorial jurisdiction invoked by the petitioner. The court asked where the order was impacting people and observed that when parts of the cause of action lie within the jurisdiction of two High Courts, the dominant High Court determines the forum. The court noted that the dominant cause of action was in Visakhapatnam and remarked that the suffering was of the people of Visakhapatnam, not Delhi.
The petitioner's counsel had argued that the decision to shut down commercial flight operations at the existing airport was taken in an arbitrary and high-handed manner. The counsel raised concerns over shifting all commercial operations to the new Alluri Sitarama Raju International Airport at Bhogapuram, noting that the new site is situated around 60 kilometres, or nearly two hours away, from Andhra Pradesh's most populous city.
In his petition, Gopala Krishna Kosaraju stated that while the development of modern infrastructure at Bhogapuram was welcome, imposing a 30-year ban on commercial flights at an existing, fully functional, and centrally located public facility was arbitrary and unreasonable. The plea highlighted that the Airports Authority of India had invested more than ₹250 crore in the terminal and airside infrastructure at Visakhapatnam in recent years, arguing that leaving the asset idle to guarantee exclusivity to a private operator violated the Public Trust Doctrine.
Scheduled commercial flight operations at Visakhapatnam Airport ceased on August 16, concluding with the departure of IndiGo flight 6E 2018 to Delhi at 10.45 p.m. Following the Union Aviation Ministry's July 28 announcement that commercial flights would halt for 30 years, the airport's IATA code 'VTZ' was transferred to the Bhogapuram airport effective August 17.
