No SC relief to KF pilots in salary case

Efforts by cash-strapped Kingfisher Airline pilots to seek the Supreme Court’s intervention to ensure the disbursal of their salaries failed as the court said it “cannot” issue any direction in this regard as they were engaged in private employment.

A bench of Justices Anil R Dave and A K Sikri said they had all the concern and sympathy for the pilots but the court enjoyed no jurisdiction to entertain their petition.

A group of pilots led by Niket Deep Kalra filed a writ petition in the apex court seeking
direction to the Centre to intervene to ensure payment of salary and wages.
Their counsel pleaded that the petitioners were engaged in an important duty in which lives of hundreds of passengers were involved.

“If the pilots are not paid salaries, they will not be able to perform their duties which may pose serious risk to the life of the passenger,” he said. In such a scenario, the government could not be a mute spectator. 

“You are in private employment. Tomorrow, every private employee would come to us for seeking such a direction on non-payment of wages. You cannot extend Article 32 (writ jurisdiction) to an absurd level,” the bench observed. The counsel, on his part, insisted that civil aviation was a highly regulated sector in which the government could intervene.

The court again brushed aside his argument by saying, “Every sector be it education, medical and transport is regulated one. We are living in the regulation regime. It is really a serious issue but we cannot do anything.”