The Supreme Court has been moved by 91-year-old Pushkaraj Sabharwal, father of late Captain Sumeet Sabharwal, pilot-in-command of the Air India Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner that crashed during takeoff in Ahmedabad on 12 June 2025, seeking an independent, judicially monitored probe into the tragedy that claimed 260 lives.
The petition, filed jointly by Mr. Sabharwal and the Federation of Indian Pilots, prays for the constitution of a judicial committee headed by a retired Supreme Court judge along with independent experts from the aviation sector. The proposed committee would oversee an impartial and comprehensive investigation into the technical, procedural, and human factors behind the crash.
The plea asserts that the ongoing investigation conducted by the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) under the Union Ministry of Civil Aviation suffers from “serious infirmities and biases,” leading to “selective blame” against pilots, while ignoring crucial evidence that points to possible systemic or design-level faults in the Boeing aircraft.
The petition emphasizes that such one-sided reporting obstructs truth-finding, erodes public trust, and endangers future passenger safety by leaving root causes unaddressed. It argues that Article 21’s guarantee of the right to life extends to air safety and mandates transparency and accountability in aviation investigations.
The petitioners have urged the Supreme Court to close all previous investigations by the Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau (AAIB) and transfer evidence to the proposed judicially supervised inquiry.
The Supreme Court is already seized of a parallel petition filed by NGO Safety Matters Foundation, which raises similar demands for a judicially supervised mechanism to ensure fairness and transparency in high-fatality air accidents.