The Delhi High Court has set October 16 as the date for the final hearing on the case of Indian Pilots Guild (IPG) challenging the authority of the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) to issue a Civil Aviation Requirement (CAR) enhancing the notice period that pilots have to serve before they are allowed to quit their current jobs.

This follows the Delhi High Court admitting IPG’s plea challenging the DGCA on Thursday. Earlier this month, the DGCA had issued a fresh CAR stipulating that a Commander will have to give a ‘notice period’ of at least one year while a co-pilot will have to give a six-month notice. The earlier stipulation was for a six-month notice period for pilots.

“We had filed a petition that the CAR for the notice period of one year be quashed as the DGCA does not have the power to issue this CAR. It is not in their competence to issue this CAR,” Anubha Singh, lawyer for IPG, told BusinessLine .

The petition has not given any example of what is followed in other countries but has challenged the power of the DGCA under the Aircraft Acts and Rules.

“The DGCA has exercised its powers completely beyond the Acts and Rules that is prima facie void and unconstitutional,” Singh added.

The DGCA first laid down a six-month notice period for pilots during the UPA regime.

Till then airlines had been free to stipulate their own notice periods.

The six-month rule was brought in following an exodus of pilots from India to Gulf airlines. The latest CAR says the notice period, however, may be reduced if the air transport undertaking provides a ‘No Objection Certificate’ to a pilot and accepts his resignation earlier than the requisite notice period.

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