'What is your deep-rooted agenda': Supreme Court on PIL seeking 'complete sequence' in Air India crash

The Delhi high court had rejected a PIL seeking that information on the "complete sequence of events" leading to the crash be included in the preliminary investigation report.

The Supreme Court on Wednesday refused to consider a plea regarding the preliminary investigation report in the June 2025 Air India crash in Ahmedabad, by asking the petitioner “What is your deep‑rooted agenda?”

A bench of Chief Justice Surya Kant and Justices Joymalya Bagchi and Vipul M Pancholi even declined to accept the petitioner's contention that the authorities should be directed to treat his plea as a representation.

The bench was hearing a plea challenging a February 25 order of the Delhi High Court. The high court had rejected a PIL seeking that information on the "complete sequence of events" leading to the crash be included in the preliminary investigation report.

“What is your deep-rooted agenda? As if we don't understand the motive. The people who lost their lives, their family members are not filing (petitions), but you are filing," the bench told the counsel appearing for the petitioner.

On June 12, 2025, Air India flight AI 171, a Boeing 787-8 aircraft en route to London Gatwick, crashed into a medical college hostel complex shortly after takeoff from Ahmedabad's Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel International Airport. The aircraft burst into flames, killing 241 out of 242 people onboard and 19 people on the ground.

The petitioner urged the high court to "read down" the preliminary investigation report of the Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau and direct the authorities to modify the report to include the time-chart of "flame out" of engines and the transition of fuel switches, whether mechanical or manual.