Supreme Court Rejects Petition by Air India Employees Over Salary Dispute Post Disinvestment

In a significant ruling, the Supreme Court of India has dismissed the appeals filed by some employees of Air India Limited (AIL) over alleged stagnation in pay, non-promotion, and delay in payment of wage revision arrears, among other issues, following the airline’s disinvestment and takeover by the Tata Group in January 2022.

The apex court upheld a September 2022 verdict of the Bombay High Court which had disposed of four writ petitions filed by the employees, citing non-maintainability of the petitions due to the privatisation of AIL.

The ruling clarified that AIL ceased to be a state entity or its instrumentality under Article 12 of the Constitution after the disinvestment, and thus, no case of alleged violation of fundamental rights would lie against it.

A bench of Justices B. R. Gavai and Sandeep Mehta observed that the high court had rightly ruled on the ground of non-maintainability of the writ petitions due to the privatisation of AIL. The court noted that once AIL ceased to be covered by the definition of State within the meaning of Article 12 of the Constitution, it could not have been subjected to the court’s writ jurisdiction under Article 226.

The ruling emphasized that since AIL had been disinvested and taken over by a private entity for commercial operations, it was not performing any public duty. Therefore, no writ petition was maintainable against AIL, and the employees would have to approach another forum for seeking remedy.

The Supreme Court’s decision underscores the legal implications of disinvestment and privatisation on the jurisdiction of courts over entities formerly under government control. It highlights the need for affected parties to pursue appropriate legal channels for addressing grievances in such cases.

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