India, Nov. 7 -- The Supreme Court on Friday underlined that the pilots of the Air India Flight that crashed on June 12, killing over 250 people, cannot be held responsible for the tragedy, and that no government report has sought to apportion blame on them. The court added it was prepared to state this on record, even as it agreed to examine a plea filed by the father of the pilot-in-command seeking a judicially monitored investigation.

A bench of justices Surya Kant and Joymalya Bagchi told senior advocate Gopal Sankaranarayanan, appearing for petitioner Pushkaraj Sabharwal-- father of Captain Sumeet Sabharwal, that the family should not bear the burden of any perceived insinuation.

"This is an extremely unfortunate accident. But you ...