India, Sept. 15 -- The Ministry of Civil Aviation has sought answers from Air India over how three Italian nationals managed to board an international flight from Delhi to Munich without completing mandatory immigration clearance.

The three passengers -- Surjit Singh, Balwinder Kaur and Gurdev Singh -- arrived at Delhi's Indira Gandhi International Airport on September 4 after travelling from Amritsar on Air India flight AI-1115. Lufthansa operated the flight that took the passengers out of India, but the alleged lapse occurred during the passenger-handling and transfer process covered by the Air India procedure.

The show-cause notice, seen by HT, was issued on Saturday (September 12) and raises several questions about the airline's han...