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Journalism of Courage
MUMBAI, JULY 27: The Mumbai High Court has directed the Aviation Ministry to investigate allegations that Air-India was suffering huge losses due to the massive salaries and hefty perks given to its pilots who were holding the airline to ransom by functioning as per their whims and fancies.
Disposing of a public interest litigation (PIL), a bench headed by Chief Justice B.P. Singh yesterday directed the Civil Aviation Ministry to hear the grievances of the petitioner and give its ruling within four weeks. The petitioner was granted the liberty to move the court in case he was not satisfied with the Aviation Ministry’s ruling.
The suggestion to refer the matter to the Aviation Ministry came from the Additional Solicitor General S.B. Jaisinghani.
Santosh Thakur, former executive director of Air Traffic Services, filed a PIL alleging that the total emoluments of an Air-India pilot worked out to Rs 40 lakh, and half of this amount was paid in US dollars.
Although Air-India was incurring losses, it continued to pay handsome salaries and perks to its pilots who were the highest-paid employees in this sector of the country, the PIL said, and demanded rationalisation of allowances given to pilots. It also alleged that for the past four years, Air-India had incurred losses of Rs 200 crore on account of the salaries it paid to pilots.
The petitioner alleged that pilots often insisted that their relatives be given a free ticket and consequently refused to take more cargo, resulting in losses to the airline.
The PIL urged the court to direct pilots to compensate losses incurred by Air-India due to their “irrational behaviour”. He said pilots on many occasions had refused to fly the aircraft, holding the airline to ransom. In this regard, he quoted six to seven examples to substantiate his allegations. The PIL alleged that Air-India did not take any action against these pilots for their “adamant attitude” because they often threatened to resort to strikes.
The petitioner demanded that such “guilty” pilots be booked under Suppression of Unlawful Activity Act which dealt with disruption of services at airports or endangering or threatening to endanger the safety of airports. Such offences were punishable with life imprisonment, he said. The petitioner also prayed that the pilots be restrained from going on strike.
