Two former pilots of the now-defunct Kingfisher Airlines have approached the Karnataka High Court, seeking a direction to the court-appointed official liquidator to disburse their salaries, which were not paid by the airline before it went into liquidation.
A single judge bench of Justice Sachin Shankar Magadum briefly heard the matter on Wednesday and directed counsel for petitioners, Captain Mukesh Singh Shaktawat and Captain Desmond D’mello, to serve a copy of the petition to the counsel for the official liquidator.
Justice Magadum posted the matters for further hearing on April 8.
Amount finalised by official liquidator
Advocate Chaitanya Agarwal, appearing for the petitioners, said, “At present, two petitions have been filed before the High Court, but there are other similarly placed former employees of the Airlines who have approached the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) seeking the same relief of payment of salaries due to them.”
The petition filed by Shaktawat states that he served the erstwhile airlines from December 1, 2005, to February 13, 2014, but was not paid his salary and other dues amounting to around Rs 1,39,77,487 crore for the period July 2011 to February 2014.
The petitioner also contended that the official liquidator, in 2022-2023, finalised the amount payable to him. However, no amount has been paid except the provident fund money.
Shaktawat also claimed that, as per a reply dated July 30, 2025, received from the official liquidator, the State Bank of India (SBI) is not releasing funds from the sale proceeds of the assets of the erstwhile airlines.
Amount released by SBI
The petition stated that, reportedly, more than Rs 142.24 crore has been released by SBI, which is heading the consortium of creditor banks to which the airlines owes an amount, to the official liquidator on December 15, 2025. The petition further stated that the total claim of the workmen with the official Liquidator is understood to be around Rs 311 crore.
Shaktawat claims that, according to news reports, the consortium of banks under SBI has recovered around Rs 14,000 crore from asset sales. “If the interest on these amounts (salary due) is ignored for a moment, then the amount is sufficient to service the entire principal amounts due to the workmen and secured creditors,” he said.
The plea said that the non-payment of the legitimate and sanctioned salary dues, despite the conclusion of liquidation proceedings and the official liquidator’s determination of the amounts due, amounts to gross injustice to the petitioner and violates the petitioner’s fundamental right to life and livelihood under Article 21 of the Constitution.
Stating that ex-employees come in the category of ‘workmen’ as provided in Section 2(s) of the Industrial Disputes Act, 1947, the petitioner submitted, “More than 10 years have elapsed since salary dues have not been received by the petitioner, leading to great financial hardship.”
Shaktawat prayed to issue a direction or order to disburse the dues as per Form 69 issued to the petitioner at the earliest, treating him as a priority over other secured creditors. He also prayed to declare that, if passed, the order will be in rem so that other ex-employees do not need to individually knock on the doors of various courts for similar orders.
Kingfisher Airlines case
Fugitive businessman Vijay Mallya and Kingfisher Airlines Ltd came under the scanner of the Enforcement Directorate, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), the Serious Fraud Investigation Office (SFIO) and the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) for loan defaults of over Rs 10,000 crore to a consortium of Indian banks led by SBI.
During a hearing before the Karnataka High Court, Vijay Mallya relied on a Debt Recovery Tribunal order and claimed that the recovery certificate dated April 10, 2017, was issued for the recovery of Rs 6,203 crore, with a further interest of 11.5 per cent.
As per the press release issued by ED dated July 16, 2021, the amount recovered was Rs. 7,181 crore.
He also claimed that, as per the recovery proceedings, Rs. 10,040 crore had been recovered.
Mallya has also referred to the statements made by the finance minister in Parliament, saying that the attached property of around Rs 14,000 crore had been restored to public sector banks.
He also referred to the 2024-25 report of the Union finance ministry, stating that the full amount had been restored to the public sector bank.
Mallya is presently in the United Kingdom and has also filed a petition before the Karnataka High Court seeking information on outstanding debt owed by him and his erstwhile airline, Kingfisher (United Breweries Holdings Limited).
Former Kingfisher Airlines pilots have approached the Karnataka High Court for payment of their pending salaries. (File Photo) 
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