A pilot working with IndiGo, a private airline, has moved the Bombay High Court seeking a direction to the Union government to allow him to carry a `kirpan’ while flying.Kirpan is a short knife with a curved blade, worn, sometimes in miniature form, as one of the five distinguishing signs of the Sikh Khalsa.

Angad Singh, a pilot with InterGlobe Aviation which operates IndiGo, claimed in the petition filed before the Nagpur bench of the high court that he has the right to carry a kirpan as part of the freedom of religion guaranteed under Article 25 of the Indian Constitution.