Delhi High Court slapped contempt notices to nine office bearers of pilots’ union for disobeying its order to call-off the strike. It has given two weeks time to the pilots to respond to the notice. Pulling up the striking pilots and Air India Management for their rigid attitude, the court appointed a Counsel to assist both parties in resolving the stand off. Earlier, the Court had directed the pilots to end their strike immediately and also asked the management to consider their demands. The Government has said that talks will be held only after the pilots call-off their strike. The pilots on the other side maintained that they will call-off there strike only after the derecognition of their union is revoked and its sacked office bearers are reinstated. Air India management in the meantime issued directions to the airline’s accounts department not to process the salaries of pilots who have not reported back for duty, despite the issuance of an ultimatum that expired last Friday.

Meanwhile, the passengers continue to have a harrowing time with the national carrier curtailing its domestic operations till the 6th of this month as part of the contingency schedule. It has however deployed aircrafts with more seating capacity including Boeing 777 and 747 to clear off backlog on the domestic routes.