The pilots, under the banner of Indian Pilots Guild (IPG), are agitating over the rescheduling of Boeing 787 Dreamliner training and matters relating to their career progression.
Justice Reva Khetrapal issued notice to IPG and asked it to reply to a plea of Air India management seeking court's intervention and also a restraint order against the striking pilots.
"The defendant no 1 (IPG), its members, agents and its office bearers are restrained from illegal strike. The pilots are also restrained from reporting sick, holding dharnas, staging demonstrations or resorting to any other modes of strike in and outside the company's offices in Delhi and other regional offices," Justice Khetrapal said in her order.
The judge also said allowing such strike to continue will cause irreparable loss to the company as well as huge inconvenience to the passengers travelling by the national carrier.
Filing an injunction suit against the pilots, counsel for AI management Lalit Bhasin termed the strike as illegal and said due to the pilots' strike, the company has been compelled to cancel some of its international flights which has resulted in extreme hardship and also inconvenience to the passengers.
Moreover, as a result of the cancellation of flights, Air India is facing huge financial loss of over Rs 10 crore per day, he added.
Accepting the counsel's submissions, the court said "the court is of the opinion that the company has prima facie made out its case. It is a public utility service (PUS) company. It has been held by the Supreme Court that PUS companies cannot be held to ransom by such types of strike..."
The court has fixed July 13 as the next date of hearing. (MORE)