The Delhi High Court
on Wednesday asked the Centre and the Air India management to respond to a plea
of striking pilots that their salaries and other pecuniary benefits have not
been paid.
“Issue notice to the
respondents (the Centre and the Air India). A reply be filed within a week,”
Justice S.P. Garg said.
The court was hearing
a petition filed by Capt. Sumeer Saini and his fellow pilots seeking payment of
their back wages and other perquisites due to them.
Senior advocate Pinki
Anand, appearing for the pilots, said, “Salaries of nearly 450 pilots are due.
This petition has got nothing to do with the ongoing agitation. The EMIs (to be
paid by pilots) and other things are getting delayed.”
The lawyer was responding
to the remarks of Justice Garg that “how can their plea be entertained when
they are on strike.”
Ms. Anand said that
the pilots, who went on a strike from May 7, have not been paid their dues for
the period prior to their strike. The court has now posted the matter for
further hearing on July 10.
Lalit Bhasin, counsel
for the AI management, opposed the plea of the pilots, saying “their plea
cannot be entertained till they end their strike.”
Earlier, Justice Reva
Khetrapal had issued contempt notices to 67 striking Air India pilots and their
representative body, Indian Pilots Guild (IPG), for disobeying its earlier
order, by which their stir was termed as illegal.
The High Court had on
May 9 restrained over 200 agitating pilots from continuing their “illegal
strike”, reporting sick and staging demonstrations, a day after the airline
management sacked 10 pilots and derecognised their union
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