"Issue notices on this application (of Air India management) to the non-applicant (respondents 1 to 68). Notice shall indicate that the non-applicants (pilots) shall file their replies to it. List the matter on July 13," Justice Reva Khetrapal said.
The court's order came on a fresh application by Air India management seeking initiation of civil contempt proceedings against the striking pilots for their "flagrant violation" of an earlier order which did not only term the strike as illegal, but had asked them to resume work.
Lalit Bhasin, counsel for Air India, cited the judgment of a division bench of the high court by which the plea of IPG was dismissed and said that the pilots can be tried for civil contempt under the Civil Procedure Code, that entails a punishment of three months jail term.
Taking note of the plea, Justice Khetrapal, however, said, "In the meanwhile, I still feel that better sense will prevail on the pilots.
"Nobody is concerned with the plight of the passengers as somebody might have to see a person on a death bed... Some must have missed an important meeting or an important interview."
The counsel for Air India also told the court that "the IPG have held a press conference to categorically state that the pilots are still on strike. It manifests that they are still in defiance of the judicial order."
Earlier in the day, Air India management had filed a contempt petition in the high court against the striking pilots on the ground that they have failed to comply with the court's earlier order restraining them from undertaking the stir. (More)