Does Privatisation Of Air India Make Writ Petitions Filed Against It Non-Maintainable? Supreme Court To Consider

The Supreme Court has issued notice in a Special Leave Petition filed by employees of Air India Limited against the judgment and order dated 20-09-2022 of the Bombay High Court which held that Writ Petitions are not maintainable against the airline because of the subsequent privatisation of Air India Limited.

The Writ Petitions had arisen out of non-grant of timely wage revisions, stagnation and refusal to rectify anomalies in pay and non-grant of promotional avenues.

The High Court bench comprising Chief Justice Dipankar Datta and Justice M S Karnik had held, "The writ petitions, although maintainable on the dates they were instituted, have ceased to be maintainable by reason of privatization of AIL which takes it beyond our jurisdiction to issue a writ or order or direction to it." 

Resultantly, the petitioners i.e. the concerned employees have preferred a Special Leave Petition before the Supreme Court challenging the above dated. 

The SLP was listed before a bench of Justices BR Gavai and Vikram Nath on 16 January 2023. Senior Advocate Sanjay Singhvi, appearing for the petitioners, submitted before the bench that the Writ Petitions when filed were admittedly maintainable. He further added, "the principle that maintainability of a matter is to be determined with reference to the facts as they existed on the date of the institution of the Petitions cannot be ordinarily deviated from."

Mr. Singhvi was assisted and briefed by Advocates Rohini Thyagarajan, Shanvi Punamiya and Nishant Sharma. Advocate Sandeep Deshmukh was the Advocate on Record for the petitioners.

Senior Advocate Dr. Abhishek Manu Singhvi, appearing on behalf of Air India Limited, apprised the bench of several orders passed by various High Court across the country where Petitions against Air India Limited had been disposed of as non-maintainable due to the subsequent privatisation of an entity which was earlier a "State" under Article 12 of the Constitution of India. 

Case Title: R.S. Madireddy & Ors vs. Union of India & Ors. SLP (C) No(s). 23441-23444/2022

Read the order here: