NEW DELHI: Giving major relief to Air India pilots, who were sacked in August last year, the Delhi High Court on Tuesday ordered the national carrier to reinstate them to the positions.
Hearing over 40 petitions filed by the sacked pilots, Justice Jyoti Singh ordered Air India to reinstate the pilots and pay them back wages for the period under question. A total of 61 Air India pilots had been terminated from their services in August 2020.
The airline had cited the pandemic and the resulting financial crisis as demand crashed as the reason behind its decision to sack the pilots. The pleas filed by the fired pilots before the courts, however, had sought the quashing of the April 2 2020 order suspending their services, and the subsequent order of August 7, by which they were all terminated.
In its order on Tuesday, the court said that the extension of the contract, in the future, of the contractual pilots would be at the discretion of Air India in view of their satisfactory performance. Many of the pilots had also resigned due to non-payment or delayed payment of their salaries.
They had later withdrawn their resignations before the six-month notice period was over. These pilots have sought directions from the court to Air India to not to accept their earlier resignations.
In response, Air India had said that the delay in payment of salaries and allowances was in no manner done with a malafide intention but invariably delayed due to the national airline’s precarious financial condition during the year.
The national carrier also told the court that, "The general principle allows an employee to withdraw his resignation before its acceptance, but the fact of the present matter falls under an exceptional circumstance and the acceptance of the withdrawal would be gravely against the public interest."