By IANS,
New Delhi : The Delhi High Court Monday issued notice to Air India on the plea of 68 young pilots who have alleged foul play by the airline in its recruitment process.
The pilots allege that Alliance Air, the low cost wing of Air India, has withheld the results of the job interview they had taken over 10 months ago.
Justice Siddharth Mridul issued notice to Air India and Alliance Air asking them to file a detailed affidavit explaining why they are not declaring the result. The court has posted the matter for further hearing Aug 10.
The young pilots, who have spent lakhs of rupees in obtaining commercial pilot licences, had filed a petition in the court last week.
In their petition, filed through advocate Praneet Ranjan, the pilots alleged that the selection process for trainee pilots is not correct. They had appeared in the airline’s selection test and interview in 2008, but were not informed of the results. Instead, the airline put out another advertisement for the same posts in June this year.
The pilots claim the new advertisement is an eyewash and the airline is trying to make backdoor entries of certain pilots from other airlines.
The petitioner also pleaded that the court put a stay on the advertisement. However, the court refused, saying that it is too early.
The dispute started in April 2008, when Air India invited applications for trainee pilots in Alliance Air. The written test was held on May 25, for which 260 candidates were invited. Of these, 92 were selected and appeared for an interview held in Delhi between Sep 2 and Sep 12.
The pilots allege that none of the 92 were informed of the test results. After the airline advertised again last month to fill up the vacancies, 68 of the pilots approached the court against the airline.