Airports: HC upholds development fee charged

Delhi and Mumbai international airports are well within their rights in charging airport development fees and stopping them from doing so would hurt public-private partnership, the Delhi high court held on Wednesday.

A division bench headed by chief justice A P Shah dismissed a bunch of petitions that alleged that both the Delhi International Airport Ltd and the Mumbai International Airport Ltd were collecting ADF in an illegal manner, without having any authority.

Ruling in favour of the airport managers, the Bench said, "There is no illegality in ADF. They (DIAL and MIAL) have obtained the Centre's permission for that."

Both DIAL and MIAL have got the management of the airport under a statutory lease from the government and they are entitled to all powers of the Airports Authority of India to levy such a fee.

Stopping them from collecting the fee would,". . .frustrate the whole government policy of involving private participation in the sector," the bench said.

DIAL collects Rs 200 from each domestic passenger and Rs 1,300 from each international passenger as ADF, while MIAL charges Rs 100 from domestic passengers and Rs 600 from international passengers towards development.

Image: Delhi airport