‘Once a pilot resigns…’: Air India’s submission in Delhi high court

Air India on Thursday submitted in the Delhi high court that the once a pilot resigns, the legal employer-employee relationship “comes to end,” adding that the resignation “cannot be withdrawn subsequently,” according to news agency PTI. The national carrier made these submissions as a 2-judge high court bench took up its appeal against a single judge order quashing the its termination of 40 pilots, including both permanent and contractual, and directing it to reinstate them.

The pilots’ services were terminated last year owing to the commercial slowdown due to the Covid-19 induced lockdown, during which both domestic and international services were suspended. While domestic services resumed in May last year, international flight operations remain suspended.