The Indian Commercial Pilots Association (ICPA) today said it was contemplating challenging the directive of the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) making it mandatory for pilots to give a six-month notice as it "violated" not only the labour laws but those governing contracts too.
"It is against the Constitution and is violative of the fundamental rights, the labour laws and the laws governing contracts," Capt Nahar Singh, President ICPA's Delhi unit told PTI here.
Maintaining that DGCA was an authority to issue pilots licenses and had no locus standi on the contract between a pilot and the organisation they were serving, he said the ICPA would be writing to the Civil Aviation Ministry, the Law Ministry and DGCA on the matter before filing a writ petition.
Aviation sources said several airlines, including the new ones, had signed contracts with pilots providing for a one to three month notice period.
In a Civil Aviation Requirement (CAR) directive yesterday the DGCA said "it has been decided by the government that any act on the part of pilots, including resignation from the airlines without a minimum notice period of six months, which may result in last minute cancellation of flights and harassment to passengers, would be treated as an act against the public interest.
"Pilots, therefore, are required 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 CAR said. The aviation sources said the circular amounted to "denial of right to work" and "forced bondage" as a pilot, who is on a contract with a provision of one-month notice period, would be bound to work for another five months under the new CAR.
They said a similar DGCA circular of 1993 was "struck down" by the Calcutta High Court in 1998 and the Supreme Court in 2001.
Observing that the DGCA was rightly concerned about safety of aircraft operations, the sources maintained that resignation of a pilot or disruption of a flight did not concern operational safety. It was the responsibility of the airline to provide for the passage of the affected passengers, they said.
On the "public interest" issue, they opined that a miniscule percentage of Indian population could be affected but this did not amount to public interest as quoted by DGCA.
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