The Air India Boeing Dreamliner crashed in Ahmedabad on June 12, 2025, killing 260 people. (Express file photo)The Supreme Court Wednesday dismissed a plea challenging the preliminary investigation report of the June 12, 2025, crash of an Air India Boeing Dreamliner in Ahmedabad, which killed 260 people.A three-judge bench, headed by Chief Justice of India Surya Kant, noted that even the deceased’s family had not come forward with such petitions and said, “People file this kind of petition. What is your deep-rooted agenda?… Those who have lost their life, their families are not coming… Nobody who has a direct grievance they are not coming…,” the CJI said.The petitioner said he was pursuing it only in public interest, but the CJI remarked, “When you have no other work, you start filing PIL, as if we don’t understand the motive…don’t compel us to make any adverse remarks…”.The bench, also comprising Justices Joymalya Bagchi and Vipul M Pancholi, refused to grant the petitioner’s request to direct the authorities to treat his petition as a representation.The appeal challenged the Delhi High Court’s February 25, 2026, order, which rejected his petition, urging that information on the “complete sequence of events” leading to the crash be included in the preliminary investigation report drawn up by the Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau.Must Read | Air India crash: How a US safety group is looking to shift focus from pilots to aircraft’s ‘history’ of defectsThe plea urged the high court to “read down” the preliminary report and direct the authorities to include the time chart of the “flame out” of engines and the transition of fuel switches, whether mechanical or manual.Dismissing it, the HC said that “such a prayer cannot be granted as it is highly misconceived for two reasons”.Story continues below this ad“Firstly, the doctrine of reading down is applied by the superior Courts while interpreting the provisions of some statute and, therefore, asking the Court to read down the Preliminary Report, which has been prepared by the experts, in our considered opinion, is a prayer which is legally impermissible to be granted by the Court. Secondly, it is a well-settled principle of law that the fields, where the experts operate, should ordinarily be left to the experts for the simple reason that the Courts are not experts in the areas.”“The Preliminary Report, which has been sought to be read down by the Court in this Petition, has been prepared by the experts and, therefore, even if in the assessment of the Petitioner the said Preliminary Report bears some lacunae, no insistence on behalf of the petitioner can be entertained by the Court by filing the Petition for reading down such a Preliminary Report.”