The Bombay High Court on Thursday dismissed a petition filed by the Pilots Association against the Directorate General of Civil Aviation?s (DGCA) decision to implement the 1992 rules instead of the newly-framed ones regarding duty hours limitations.
The division bench of Justices RMS Khandeparkar and Amjad Sayed was hearing the application filed by pilots of Jet Airways, Air India, and Indian Airlines, opposing the DGCA?s decision to keep its newly framed 2007 rules regarding duty hours of pilots in abeyance.
The new rules, called Civil Aviation Requirements (CAR), limit the pilots duty hours. These rules replace the old ones, which were framed fifteen years ago, in 1992.
After bringing in new rules, DGCA received complaints from airlines, so it decided to put them on hold, and formed a new committee to amend them and said the 1992 rules would prevail.
But the associations claimed that 2007 rules were shunned because they lessened duty hours of the pilots and made the airlines to hire more pilots.
DGCA says that it has a right to amend the rules or keep them in abeyance, and 1992 rules were in operation for 15 years, so they can not be said to be causing much hardship to pilots now.
Meanwhile, a pilot from a private airlines said, ?We are disappointed for the dismissal of our plea in the court. Previously, DGCA took all possible procedural steps before coming out with the 2007 norms to improve safety standards in the aviation sector. But it backtracked owing to the objection of a few private airlines and kept the 2007 norms in abeyance.?
