The Ministry of Civil Aviation has notified Aircraft(second) Amendment Rules, 2021 on May 13, 2021 to amend the Aircraft Rules, 1937. Key amendments notified by the ministry are as follows:
- Rule 3B has been substituted – Any person aggrieved by an order passed by an officer may prefer an appeal to an appellate officer having jurisdiction in the matter within a period of thirty days. The appellate officer may confirm, modify, or set aside the order appealed against. Such order may further be appealed before the officer next senior to the appellate officer within a period of thirty days. The officer next senior to the appellate officer may pass such order as he thinks fit, confirming, modifying, or setting aside the order appealed against. In case of an order passed by the Director-General, the appeal shall lie to the Secretary to the Government of India in the Ministry dealing with the Civil Aviation matters and no further appeal shall lie against such order. No further appeal shall lie against the order imposing penalty, passed by the appellate officer, under the provisions of section 10A of the Aircraft Act, 1934 and rule 162 of these rules. An order issued under section 5A of the Aircraft Act, 1934 shall not be appealable under this rule.
- Rule 15A has been omitted.
- Rule 20 has been substituted prescribing certain rules which shall not be applicable to Gliders and Kites. It stated that rule 7 shall not apply to gliders and rules 5, 6, 7, 12, 15, 17, 19 and the rules in Part III, except for rule 26, shall not apply to kites.
- Rule 161 has been substituted, stating the offences under the Act. Any person violating any rule as specified in Table 1 of Schedule VIA of these rules shall be punishable with the penalty as specified in paragraph 1 of that Schedule.
- Rule 162 provides the provisions for penalties. Any person contravening the provisions shall be liable for imposition of penalty to the extent as laid down in such Schedule and in accordance with the provisions of section 10A of the Aircraft Act, 1934. The penalty shall be adjudicated by the designated officers or the appellate officer.
- Schedule VI under the rules has been amended to table the offences punishable under the Aircraft Rules, 1937 with the amount of compounding of the same. The amendment has also revised the procedure for compounding of offences.
*Tanvi Singh, Editorial Assistant has put this story together.