INDIAN COMMERCIAL PILOTS ASSOCIATION Vs. UNION OF INDIA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) AGGRIEVED by the Civil Aviation Requirement (CAR) dated 1-9-2005 issued by the Director General of Civil Aviation, second respondent herein, requiring the Commercial Pilots to give a notice period of at least six months to their employer indicating their intention to leave the job and the proposed penal action under Rule 39a (2) for non-compliance of the above said requirement, the Indian Commercial Pilots Association has filed the present writ petition, seeking a Writ of Certiorari to quash the said circular.

(2.) THE members of the petitioner-association are Commercial Pilots, holding the Commercial Pilot's Licence issued by the Central Government, working with the Indian Airlines. The second respondent issued the impugned circular dated 1-9-2005 requiring the commercial pilots working for any Air Transport Undertaking to give a notice period of at least six months to their employer indicating their intention to leave the job and shall not refuse to undertake the flight duties assigned to them. The impugned circular also indicated that failure to comply with the above requirement may lead to action against them inter alia under Rule 39a (2) of the Aircraft Rules, 1937.

(3.) LEARNED counsel for the petitioner argued that the directions contained in the impugned circular are ultra vires the powers conferred on the second respondent under Rule 133 (A) as the said authority has no rule-making power or authority under the Aircraft Act and/or the Aircraft Rules to issue such directions. According to the learned counsel, by executive instructions, the second respondent cannot impose any new conditions for disqualifying a pilot from holding a licence and that it could be done only by the Central Government by amending the relevant rule.