The pilots have sought a direction to AI to restore their contractual engagements or pay them salaries along with flying allowances.
The Delhi High Court has directed Air India to inform it whether the airline can, in an interim arrangement, pay a month’s salary to the pilots who have challenged the termination of their contractual employment during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Justice Prathiba M. Singh asked the lawyer appearing for the airline to seek instructions “for payment of one month’s salary immediately, as an ad-interim arrangement, especially in view of the difficulties being faced by the petitioners (pilots) during the COVID-19 pandemic”.
The court was hearing two pleas moved by the pilots, through advocate Lalit Bhardwaj, for quashing an April 2, 2020 order suspending their services and the subsequent order of August 7, 2020 by which they were all terminated.
Justice Singh, referring to the facts of the case, said that it was “prima facie clear that the suspension,…