Pilots say ready to got to jail, strike on. HC fumes

New Delhi/Mumbai, Apr 29 (PTI) Striking Air India pilots
on Friday said they are willing to go to jail and refused to
call off their agiation which further paralysed the services
of the state-owned airline leaving hundreds of passengers
stranded.
With the strike entering the third day on Friday, the
Delhi High Court initiated contempt of court proceedings
against the pilots for their "utter defiance" of its order on
Wednesday to call off the agitation calling it as "brazen and
smacking of sheer arrogance".
A lockout of the airline and invoking of Essential
Services Maintenance Act(ESMA) were also being mulled to crack
down on the pilots.
The AI management ordered the pilots to report for
duty failing which it said the airline "is at liberty to take
any action as deemed fit including termination of services".
"This is without prejudice to any further action
management may take under any other law of the land," a notice
by the management to the agitators said. The deadline for
pilots to resume duty expired at 5 PM on Friday.
The management sacked two more pilots on Friday taking
to nine the number of pilots terminated. Six pilots have been
already suspended.
Tougher options of clamping ESMA and a lockout were also
being mulled, official sources said, adding they were waiting
for the High Court's decision on the contempt petition.
In Mumbai, the representatives of the 850-plus agitating
pilots said they will go ahead with the stir and are willing
to go to jail.
"We are more than willing to go to jail. Nearly 31,000
Air India employees will also be ready to court arrest because
we are serious about saving the national carrier from ruin,"
Rishabh Kapur, General Secretary of the derecognised Indian
Commercial Pilot Associations (ICPA) spearheading the stir
told reporters.
He demanded a CBI probe into the "massive corruption"
in the airline under the leadership of CMD Arvind Jadhav.
"We are willing to get back to work provided the
Government assures that they will look into the corruption
issue raised by us and order a CBI enquiry."
Kapur also demanded to make public portion of the
Niira Radia tape that allegedly speaks about the hidden agenda
of the Air India management to sell the Government-run airline
to a private party.
Turning the heat on striking Air India pilots, the
Delhi High Court while initiating the contempt of proceedings
also refused to lift the ban imposed by Air India management
on ICPA.
Justice Geeta Mittal, who had issued contempt notices to
three ICPA office bearers on Thursday on a plea by Air India
management, began contempt proceedings suo motu on Friday,
taking cognisance of media reports of pilots' continuing the
strike and causing difficulties to air passengers.

"It is evident that the conduct of pilots is brazen,
wilful and smacks of sheer arrogance," Justice Mittal said
while referring the matter to the Chief Justice of the high
court for further steps related to contempt proceedings by a
division bench.
"There is complete lack of respect for the court
orders," she said, adding "this conduct of pilots is covered
by the definition of the criminal contempt of court" and "such
persons are liable to face appropriate proceedings under the
law."
Maintaining that the pilots' continued strike is in
"utter defiance of court order," Justice Mittal said "it is
noteworthy that despite repeated orders, the pilots have
defied them and their conduct is exasperating. They have
undermined the authority, dignity and majesty of the court."
Earlier during the day, Justice S Murlidhar refused to
give a sympathetic hearing to the striking pilots' plea to
lift the ban on ICPA.
ICPA leaders said they would continue their strike
till the management gave an assurance that they were willing
to resolve the issues in a time-bound manner.
"We are more than willing to call off the strike if the
government is ready to look into the issues we have raised,"
ICPA General Secretary Rishabh Kapur said in Mumbai.
The strike, which began on Tuesday midnight, has
forced the cancellation of about 300 flights and led to an
estimated operational loss of Rs 26.5 crore, an AI official
said.
Air India operated only 50 of its 320 daily flights,
though some large, wide-body planes like jumbo Boeing 747 and
Boeing 777s were used to carry more passengers.
AI sources said the airline could consider taking
pilots from other Indian carriers "on loan" to meet the
crisis. "We are looking at getting at least 20 sets (a total
of 40) pilots".
The pilots from other airlines would have to be
trained to operate same type of Airbus A-320 aircraft as Air
India has for domestic operations.
In this context, Air India could make a request to its
competitors like Kingfisher and IndiGo which fly mostly
similar planes, the sources said.
The contempt proceedings in the High Court were taken
up suo motu by Justice Geeta Mittal that despite its order the
pilots have not called off the strike and the passengers were
hard pressed.