"It looks now like the management wants to have its cake and eat it too. How it can be allowed?" Justice Reva Khetrapal said while directing the airlines to complete the conciliation process within a month.
"The management should be magnanimous in its approach. It should not have a vengeful attitude...The pilots should not be made an example," the judge said.
During the hour-long arguments, the court expressed its displeasure several times, saying the management was "sitting over" the conciliation process after the pilots, affiliated to Indian Pilots Guild(IPG) decided to call off their 58-day-old strike.
"I am upset and I am also getting anguished... You assured the court. Now you want to sit over it. It should be done in a time-bound manner," the judge said.
The pilots' plea that the management was not fulfilling its assurance to consider their reinstatement sympathetically in a time-bound manner led Justice Khetrapal to ask Lalit Bhasin, counsel for the national carrier to conclude the process within four weeks.
"I stand by my assurance but there should not be a time frame. They disobeyed the court order for two months and now seeking relief from the court....I am entitled to withdraw the (contempt) suit," Bhasin replied.
The Delhi High Court had on July 9 told the management and the pilots to hold conciliation talks daily before the deputy chief labour commissioner till the dispute was resolved. MORE
