The Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) left it to the airlines to decide how many alcoholic drinks customers on board can be served.
Responding to the petition by an elderly woman, who was urinated upon by a co-passenger on a New York-Delhi flight some time ago, seeking formulation of a standard operating procedure (SOP) to deal with inebriated passengers, DGCA told the Supreme Court in an affidavit that there is already the Civil Aviation Requirements (CAR) in place to deal with unruly passengers.
The DGCA noted that as per Clause 4.3 of the CAR, it is up to the discretion of each airline to come up with a policy on the number of drinks to be served to ensure that the passengers are not intoxicated enough to be unruly, according to a Times of India report.
The woman had urged the apex court to direct DGCA to put in place a 'zero tolerance' SOP and rules to make sure that there are no unruly passengers on board.
The petitioner requested DGCA to consider "drunkenness" as disruptive or unruly behaviour onbaord an aircraft.
