The Patiala House Court on Tuesday granted bail to Shankar Mishra, accused of allegedly urinating on a woman on a New Delhi-New York Air India flight on November 26 last year. He was arrested by the Delhi Police on 6 January.
Earlier on Monday, the court had reserved its order on Mishra’s bail application for today (January 31).
Opposing the bail application, the police said that the incident has defamed India internationally.
The judge said, “It may be disgusting but it is a different matter, don’t get into it. Let’s see how the law deals with it.”
The judge also observed that the witnesses named by the prosecution “are not testifying in your (police) favour”.
The police have also alleged that the accused had threatened the complainant.
Seeking bail, Mishra had said it was initially rejected by a magistrate court pending investigation.
“Now it is done and they have examined other crew members and witnesses. Also, they asked for reimbursement of ticket and demanded no action against me,” the lawyer said.
Effect of Pee-Gate Row
Air India has changed its in-flight alcohol service policy, asking cabin crew to refuse to serve further alcohol if required. The Tata Group-owned airline has been fined by the DGCA in connection with the unruly behavior of passengers on two international flights over the past few days.
According to the revised policy issued on 19 January, guests should not be allowed to consume alcohol unless served by cabin crew and cabin crew should be vigilant in identifying guests who may be consuming their own alcohol.
According to the policy, “Alcoholic beverages must be served in an appropriate and safe manner. This includes (further) refusing to serve alcohol to guests.”
Air India has also issued a set of ‘Do’s and Don’ts’ for denial of service. This requires the cabin crew to be polite and use tact to avoid price judgments and to politely inform the guest that you will not be serving them any more alcohol.
According to the policy, “don’t call the guest ‘drunk’ – politely warn them that their behavior is unacceptable” and don’t persuade them to have ‘one last drink’ after saying they’ve had enough.
The airline stated in the policy, “Don’t raise your voice. If they raise their voice, lower your voice… Don’t stop at the refusal, act until the guest can be reasoned with.”
Also, it has told the cabin crew that they should not think that the matter is over because you have addressed it verbally.
It states, “Highly intoxicated customers should be handled firmly and respectfully.”
Serving alcoholic beverages to guests is a practice that has been in place for many years, the airline said, adding that however, there is a difference between consuming alcohol for pleasure and becoming intoxicated as a result of consuming alcohol.
“Air India reserves the right to its cabin crew to refuse boarding/refuse service of alcohol or to dispense with any alcohol where a guest is consuming himself and where there are reasonable grounds to believe that The guest is affected by facultative alcohol to an extent that would pose a hazard to the aircraft, to the persons on board (crew or guests) or to the guest himself,” the policy said.
Alcoholic beverages must be served in a proper and safe manner. The airline said this included refusing to serve a guest alcohol (further).
Guests should not be permitted to consume alcohol unless served by cabin crew and it is important that cabin crew are vigilant in identifying guests who may be consuming their own alcohol.
In a statement, an Air India spokesperson said the airline has reviewed its existing in-flight alcohol service policy, with reference to the practice of other carriers and inputs from the US National Restaurant Association’s guidelines.
“These were largely in line with Air India’s existing practice, although some adjustments have been made for better clarity, and have been incorporated into the NRA’s traffic light system to help crew identify and manage potential cases of intoxication.” has been done.
The spokesperson said, “The new policy has now been implemented for the crew and has been included in the training curriculum. Air India is committed to the safety and well-being of our passengers and cabin crew including but not limited to the responsible service of alcohol.” “
Air India has said that the traffic light system of NRA should be used to identify and manage potential intoxication. Under this system, observations of a guest’s behavior can be classified as green, yellow, or red.
“Cabin crew are responsible for monitoring for signs of inappropriate intoxication on guests and must observe the speech, coordination, balance and demeanor of patrons.
“Observations of guest behavior can then be classified as green, yellow or red,” it added.
Carrier stresses that it is important to distinguish between behaviors that may simply be a personality trait of an individual such as talking out loud or laughing loudly from behaviors that may be the result of cultural background rather than uncharacteristic behavior.
An anxious, upset or rude customer is best handled by using conflict management techniques to avoid de-escalating and escalating the situation.
At the ground level, the airline has said that it should be seen whether any guest shows signs such as cursing, staggering, using foul language and threatening behavior at the time of boarding.
In case of any such symptoms, the same should be reported to the Cabin Supervisor/Pilot-in-Command.
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