The Chief Justice questioned the Centre on who is accountable for the 4600+ cancellations and the resulting economic loss, calling the situation an alarm.
December 10, 2025: The Delhi High Court today took stern cognizance of the widespread and ongoing IndiGo flight disruption crisis, demanding accountability from the Centre for the mass cancellations and the consequent chaos affecting air travelers nationwide.
Over the past nine days, more than 4,600 IndiGo flights have been cancelled, leaving thousands of passengers stranded and crippling travel across major cities.
Court Questions Economic Impact
Hearing a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) on the matter, the bench, headed by Chief Justice DK Upadhyaya, grilled the central government and other airlines, questioning the lack of preventive action.
The Chief Justice highlighted that the impact goes far beyond individual inconvenience, affecting the national economy.
“Question is why did such a situation precipitate? Who is responsible? It is not a question of individual passengers are stranded at airports. Question is loss to the economy,” said Chief Justice DK Upadhyaya.
Preliminary reports from trade bodies already estimate a business loss of nearly ₹1,000 crore to Delhi’s trade, industry, and tourism sectors alone due to the disruption.
Unreasonable Airfare Surge Questioned
The High Court also expressed serious concern over the immediate and “unreasonable surge” in airfares by competing airlines, who capitalized on the crisis, with ticket prices reportedly soaring to ₹35,000–₹39,000 on certain routes.
“The situation created in the past week has raised an alarm. The disruption has caused the passengers facing continued inconvenience. Such disruption has even resulted in an unreasonable surge in the fares being charged by the other airlines,” the court noted.
The bench further questioned what steps the government has taken to:
- Compensate affected passengers.
- Ensure IndiGo employees behave responsibly amidst the high-stress situation at airports.
The court’s intervention comes after the Supreme Court also termed the situation a “serious matter,” citing that “lakhs of people are stranded at the airports.”
While the High Court expressed dissatisfaction with the way the initial PIL was filed, it has taken suo motu cognizance of the public interest involved. The bench has directed the Centre to submit a detailed response by December 20, outlining measures taken to address the crisis and prevent recurrence.