Vijaypat Singhania approaches to the Bombay HC to change India’s ‘colonial’ aviation country code-VT.
The petition, that has been filed by Dr Singhania and a Pune businessman Vijay Sethi produces an argument that India’s current country code is ‘VT’. And, this VT stands for ‘Victorian’ or ‘Viceroy Territory’.
BCCL; petition
The petition further has claimed that the respondent no.1 (Union of India) needs to initiate some level of conversation or dialogue.
In favour of demanding the new letters instead of ‘VT’ and respondent no 2 (ICAO) should grant the Indian authorities permission to use letters ‘MG’ or ‘BH’, which are available letters in their database.
Demand
Vijaypat Singhania, ex-chairman emeritus of the Raymond Group, along with a businessman from Pune allegedly have approached the Bombay High Court to seek its intervention to direct the central government.
Through Director General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) and International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) to change India’s country code or registration alphabets for all Indian aircraft.
“It is an important sign of colonial repression of British, which remains on Indian aircraft in the form of Alphabets ‘VT’ even today,” said the petition, a copy of which was reviewed by DGCA officials. “India got independence on August 15, 1947, and hence it is high time to change the Alphabets ‘VT’ prefixed to Indian aircraft’s registration/name.”
Previous attempts
Back in 2004, the Civil Aviation Ministry, under the NDA government, initiated some efforts to replace the code, which is allotted by the International Civil Aviation Organization, or ICAO.
But discussions with the ICAO didn’t help much. Ministry expressed the concern that- “The Ministry is keen to shed this colonial remnant and replace it with codes like IN for India or BH for Bharat or even HI for Hindustan. But none of these is available. While the B series is with China, the I series is with Italy. The options available are X or V and that has no Indian resonance.”
In 2010, in a Lok Sabha question, the Civil Aviation Minister Praful Patel told said,
“An attempt was made with International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) and after evaluating all the options. It has been decided not to replace the existing mark VT as no other code which distinctly identifies with India is available.”
The case
As per the court’s website, the case was filed on March 22, 2021, through their advocate Ajinkya Mohan Udane, but has not reached for the hearing.
Now, Singhania and Sethi are seeking the court’s intervention to direct the government to submit a record of attempts made by it to get the aircraft registration ‘VT’ changed.
Claims in favour
A fewer claims that have been put up in the petition include that India was assigned the letter ‘VT’
it was under British or the colonial rule since series VA to VZ were assigned to aircraft registration to all British territories.
- But the time has now changed, we are not in the colonial period and this is subdued and neglected on the part of Central Government.
The petition has also put an argument that some countries such as Pakistan, Fiji and Nepal did manage to change their country code after they became independent.
Choice
“If one goes through the ICAO alphabetical identification given to various countries, the word ‘MG’ (for Mahatma Gandhi) or ‘BH’ (for Bharat) are not given to anyone. Instead of alphabets ‘VT’, the ICAO can grant words ‘MG’ or ‘BH’ to all aircraft registered in India,” said the petition.
However, this is all a matter of choice. You need to seek to change to improve but the union government is not keen to keep an eye on the same.
Conclusion
The petition, has finally achieved to sought the court’s intervention to direct the government to submit a plan of action for coordination with ICAO to change the current aircraft registration code.
Thank You.
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