DGCA rejects HuffPost's report stating airlines' ban on Kunal Kamra violation of rules

In a statement, the DGCA, which is the Indian civil aviation watchdog, said: "HUFFPOST has misquoted/misrepresented the facts as stated by the Director General of Civil Aviation in its News Item publish today at 5.01 PM."

It said the actions have been taken in "complete consonance" with the Civil Aviation Requirement CAR Section 3, Series M, Part Vl on “Handling of Unruly Passengers" rules revised in 2017.

"Now the matter is to be referred to the Internal Committee as prescribed in para 6.1 of the said CAR. Further, as per para 6.4 of the CAR, the Internal Committee is to give the final decision in 30 days by giving the reasons in writing, which shall be binding on the airline concerned," the statement said.

It stated that punishments for different types of unruly behaviour are provided in the CAR and the Internal Committee has to adhere to them.

This comes after the Huffington Post quoting  Arun Kumar, director-general of Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) reported that the ban on the standup comedian announced by airlines including Indigo, Air India, Spice Jet and Go Air is a violation of the rules.

"The ban announced by IndiGo and other airlines including Air India, SpiceJet and GoAir on standup comedian Kunal Kamra is a clear violation of the Civil Aviation Requirement (CAR Section 3, Series M, Part Vl on “Handling of Unruly Passengers) rules revised in 2017, said Arun Kumar, director general of Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA)," the report by HuffPost claimed.

After getting banned by IndiGo and Air India for heckling journalist Arnab Goswami during a flight journey, stand-up comedian Kunal Kamra on Wednesday received the same treatment by airline SpiceJet.

Reacting to the ban, Kamra issued a statement which reads, ".... I haven't even travelled SpiceJet or Air India in this event and there's no pattern here of me being unruly. This was the first time something like this has happened, so why have they jumped the gun and banned me? I have travelled SpiceJet and Air India in the past. There have been no complaints against me ever, only selfies and love has been shared by the crew."

Kamra, in the video posted on Tuesday on his Twitter handle, was seen attacking Goswami over his brand of  “journalism” and provoked him to respond holding that he is doing this for late Dalit student Rohith Vemula's mother (Rohith had committed suicide). He asked him if he is a "coward" or a "nationalist", ridiculing the media personality for his stand and aggression against certain groups like JNU students, liberals, et al. Goswami, who helms pro-government Republic TV, reportedly called him mentally unstable during the incident and kept quiet.

He even challenged Goswami, who was on his laptop sporting dark glasses, to speak out against him identifying himself as “anti-national” and one of  “tukde-tukde narrative”.

Soon after the video went viral, Indigo issued a statement saying: "In light of the recent incident on board 6E 5317 from Mumbai to Lucknow, we wish to inform that we are suspending Mr. Kunal Kamra from flying with IndiGo for a period of six months, as his conduct onboard was unacceptable behaviour."

Soon after national carrier Air India banned him from flying for a similar period of time.

Kamra posted along the video that he did this (heckling Arnab Goswami midair) for his hero Rohit (read Rohith Vemula, the Dalit Ph.D scholar student who had committed suicide alleging discrimination against him in University of Hyderabad).

While Arnab Goswami is known for his ballistic TV journalism and attacks on "liberals", he during the midair episode kept silent.