Delhi High Court dismisses PIL over information on Ahmedabad plane crash

Delhi High Court dismisses PIL for detailed probe report on Ahmedabad Air India plane crash, calling it 'highly misconceived.'

The Delhi High Court on Wednesday (February 25, 2026) dismissed a petition seeking directions to disclose the precise moment the fuel switch on the London-bound Air India aircraft, which crashed in Ahmedabad in June last year, was moved from “run” to “cut-off”.

The petitioner, a mechanical engineer from IIT-Delhi, had urged the court that the preliminary investigation report prepared by the Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau (AAIB) include details on the “complete sequence of events” that led to the Air India plane crash in Ahmedabad last June.

A bench of Chief Justice D.K. Upadhyaya and Justice Tejas Karia said the public interest litigation (PIL), which also sought a direction to the Bureau to publish such information in public domain, was “highly misconceived”.

Observing that the petitioner, Suresh Chand Shrivastava, should have taken recourse available to him under the Right to Information (RTI) Act, the Bench said: “Such prayer in our considered opinion cannot be granted.” If such information is worthy of being given under the RTI Act, it would be provided, the court said.

“We are not inclined to entertain this petition which is dismissed,” the court concluded.

The petitioner’s counsel said he believed that it was highly probable that the cause of failure of both engines of the aircraft was a “surge”, which could be confirmed by “exact time of flame out of each engine and the transitions of each fuel switch to the cut-off position”.