High Court asks airline to be respectful to female passengers
Etihad Airways will have to pay Tk1 crore each to Supreme Court lawyer Advocate Nahid Sultana Juthi and her daughter Tanzeen Bristy in compensation for harassing them at Abu Dhabi International Airport in 2011.
Etihad, second flag carrier of the United Arab Emirates, has to pay the money in 20 monthly instalments from July, following the release of the full text of a High Court verdict in this regard.
The High Court bench of Justice Md Ashraful Kamal and Justice Razik-Al-Jalil passed the verdict on October 8, 2020, and the 192-page full text of the judgement was released on Wednesday, Advocate Manzil Morshed, who moved a petition filed in this regard, told BSS.
“The court in its judgement ordered the airline authorities to behave with caution and respect with their women passengers,” Advocate Morshed added.
Expressing her satisfaction over the judgement, Advocate Nahid Sultana Juthi said the judgement is a milestone and would set an example.
When the report of this judgement is released by media outlets at home and abroad, expatriate Bangladeshis will get confidence that they would get legal remedies, if they suffer any illegal harassment, she said.
“En route to Canada, as we reached Abu Dhabi International Airport on June 28, 2011, they refused to complete the formalities regarding our passports and tried to force it on us. As my daughter protested and said ‘It is your duty’, they harassed us and even took away our phones. We went through indescribable sufferings and torment. We could not go to Canada and had to come back to Bangladesh,” Advocate Juthi said.
After the incident, Tanzeen Bristy filed the writ petition with the High Court, making seven officials, including foreign secretary and civil aviation secretary, the respondents.
The High Court on July 14 issued a rule in this regard.
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