Coming down heavily on striking Air India pilots,the Delhi High Court today said that they cannot "wilfully and flagrantly" disobey court orders to end their "illegal" strike and can face contempt action. Rejecting the plea of Indian Pilots Guild (IPG),which is spearheading the agitation by over 200 pilots,the court said,"In our view,no litigant can avail of any discretionary remedy from the court by willfully and flagrantly disobeying the orders of the court." The IPG had moved the court challenging the exparte order of a single judge on May 9 holding the strike as illegal,saying it was done without any authority. A bench of justices Sanjay Kishan Kaul and Rajiv Shakdher said rather,the striking pilots can be tried for the offence of court of contempt by the single-judge bench. "We could have directly proceeded with the contempt of court proceedings against you,but we leave it ot the single judge so that better sense will prevail on you (IPG)," it said. The court had earlier reserved its order on the plea of IPG challenging the single-judge order which restrained it from continuing with the "illegal strike" by reporting sick and staging demonstrations. The pilots were agitating over the rescheduling of Boeing 787 Dreamliner training and matters relating to their career progression under the banner of IPG. The airline management has sacked 71 pilots including office bearers of the IPG. The bench,however,granted liberty to IPG to move before the single judge for modification of its previous order while turning down their plea that the High Court has no jurisdiction to pass an ex-parte order as the union's office as well as Air India's headquarter is in Mumbai. The IPG is protesting AI's decision to train pilots of Indian Commercial Pilots Association (ICPA),a union of pilots of erstwhile domestic carrier Indian Airlines,for dreamliner Boeing aircraft. Earlier,the AI management had filed an injunction suit against the pilots saying their strike has compelled it to cancel its international flight operations. The IPG,in its appeal against the single-judge order,said the high Court lacked jurisdiction as the office of the pilots' body is in Mumbai. IPG seeks legal opinion after High Court rejects its plea Mumbai: With the Delhi High Court dismissing its plea,the Indian Pilots Guild (IPG),leading the Air India pilots' stir,today said it was taking legal opinion on the way ahead. However,there was no word from them whether or by when they would withdraw their ten-day old agitation that has seriously affected the long-haul international operations of the ailing Air India. "We have not seen the judgment.. We are taking opinion of the legal experts," IPG leader Tauseef Muqaddam said when his reaction was sought on the matter. "As far as I know,the court has asked us to take our petition to the single bench of the court,which we had filed before the vacation division bench," he added. The division bench of the High Court said the IPG cannot "wilfully and flagrantly" disobey court orders to end their "illegal" strike and could face contempt action. The IPG had moved the court challenging the ex-parte court order of May 9 declaring the strike illegal. The airline management has sacked 71 pilots,including IPG office-bearers,after they started reporting sick and staging demonstrations to protest alleged discrimination in matters relating to their career progression,including training programme for the Boeing 787 Dreamliner.
