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Judgment
Siddharth Mridul, J
The present appeals essentially seek quashing of the common judgment and order dated 22nd March, 2017 passed in W.P.(C) No.780/2004 titled as
‘Capt. Suresh Kumar vs. Union of India & Anr.’ and W.P.(C) No.13357/2004 titled as ‘Capt. A.K. Dewan vs. Indian Airlines Limited’,
whereby, whilst allowing the said petitions, the appellant was directed to pay flying allowances to the respondents in addition to the grant of pay with
respect to the accumulated leave period available to the credit of the latter, at the time they were declared ‘Permanently Medically Unfit’
(hereinafter referred to as ‘PMU’). However, the subsequent order dated 04.08.2017, whereby the appellant’s applications seeking
clarification of the said impugned order, came to be dismissed by the learned Single Judge is not assailed.
The issue that arises for consideration in the present appeals falls within a very narrow compass, inasmuch as, whether the respondents employed
with the appellant are entitled to the payment of flying allowances at the time of encashment of accumulated leave upon being declared PMU and
grounded as a consequence thereof.
In the instant case, the respondent Nos. 1 and 2 were Executive pilots with the appellant. They were declared PMU on 03.11.2000 and 15.11.2000
respectively, and were consequently grounded.
The respondents superannuated on 31.05.2003 and 30.09.2002 respectively, and upon superannuation claim not to have received Leave
Encashment including the flying allowances to which they were duly entitled; in accordance with the subject rules and notifications of the appellant
organization.
In this behalf, admittedly, the erstwhile Indian Airlines Ltd. has issued two circulars dated 08.09.1972 and 28.05.1974. The adjudication of the issue
requires that the same be extracted in full to understand their ambit and application. The said circulars are, therefore, extracted hereinbelow:-
“Circular dated 8.9.1972 FA& CAO BBY/CAL
 Financial Controller
I.A. Hqrs. Madras & Delhi
New Delhi Sr. AFC. Hqrs.
 Dy. C.A.O. Hyd.
Ref. No. Fin/Rules/93/2458 Sept. 8, 1972
Sub: Emoluments to permanently/temporarily
 Medically unfit pilots
A request has been raised as to what Pay & Allowances would be admissible to permanently/temporarily medically unfit Pilots during Casual Leave
and Sick Leave which accrued to him during the period of his disability when their licences are not current.
The clarification is given as under:
Permanently Disablement
No leave should accrue to a pilot after availing of his leave due to him on the day of his permanently medically unfitness. He is entitled for full pay and
allowances for the period of leave which he has earned during the period when his license was current and thereafter he will get Annuity as per
Rules.
Temporary disablement
He will get basic pay and Dearness allowance during Casual & Sick Leave which will accrue to him during the period of his disablement when his
licence was not current.
 (R.K. Goel)
 Asst. Fin. Controller (R)
 f. Financial Controllerâ€
“Circular dated 28.5.1974 To:
From:
F.C. The Regional Director,
I.A. Hqrs. BBY/CAL/DLH/MAA
New Delhi Station Head, Hyd.
 Director of Training, CTE
 Begumpet
Ref. No. Fin/Rules/72/138 May 28, 1974
Sub: Medically unfit Executive Pilots-
 Payment of Flying Allowance-
According to the existing practice, an Executive Pilot, on becoming medically unfit, has to proceed on leave immediately. During the period of leave
which was to his credit on the date of his becoming medically unfit the Executive Pilot concerned is entitled to the payment of flying allowances.
It has now been decided that as and when an Executive that as and when an Executive Pilot becomes medically unfit the following procedure may
be followed:
a/ From the date of medical unfitness he may be paid flying allowances for the period which would be covered by all types of leave due to him on the
date of his medical unfitness, even though he continued working in his existing ground job.
b/ Special Sick Leave would be taken to have lapsed and he would not be entitled to this type of leave at a future date. A confirmation to this effect
should be obtained from the concerned Executive Pilot in each case.
c/ Privilege Leave standing to his credit on the date of medical unfitness will be carried forward and future accumulation will continue to be made as
per the rules applicable to general employee. Similarly, casual leave and normal sick leave will be admissible as per the rules applicable to the general
employees. An undertaking should obtained from such Executive Pilot that they will be entitled to Sick Leave as per general employee Services Rules.
d/ The Management has the option to decide if the Executive Pilot would be retained in the same job or provided an alternate ground job after
becoming medically unfit or placed on annuity. The Management, will, in future, take a decision on this point within three months from the date of
medical unfitness. In cases where a ground job is NOT offered to an Executive Pilot, he will have the option to proceed on leave in the same manner
as a Line Pilot does. In such an eventuality, he may be paid the flying allowances during the period of 3 months or less when he was on ground job but
it will have to be ensure that the flying allowances are NOT paid to him for a period longer than the period of leave due to him on the date of his
medical unfitness.
For this purpose and Executive Pilot will include the following:
a/ Director of Operation b/ Pilot Regional Director c/ Director of Training d/ Operations Manager
e/ Dy. Operations Manager
If there are any clarification required, they may please be obtained from us.
Please acknowledge receipt.
(Kripal Chand)
Financial Controllerâ€
(emphasis added)
A plain reading of the above extracted notifications clearly and unequivocally lead to the following inescapable conclusions:
a) That a PMU pilot is entitled not only for full pay but also allowances, for the period of leave which he has earned during the period when his licence
was current; and
b) That an Executive pilot would receive flying allowances, in addition to the grant of full pay, towards leave encashment, for the period of
accumulated leave, which stood to his credit, at the time of becoming medically unfit.
Learned counsel appearing on behalf of the appellant would submit that subsequent to being declared PMU, the respondents who were Executive
pilots were grounded and were entrusted with executive duties; and owing to such loss of license on being declared PMU, compensation has already
been paid to them and the same includes flying allowances as well.
It is further the case of the appellant that, towards Leave Encashment, an Executive pilot who does not undertake any actual flying is only entitled
to fixed salary and not entitled to flying allowances, inasmuch as, flying allowances can only be calculated on the basis of actual number of hours
flown. Therefore, in the present case, the respondents having continued their ground executive duties on being declared PMU, are not entitled to flying
allowances which are paid on an hourly basis for performing flying duties, at the time of encashing leave which stood to their credit.
In this behalf, reliance would be placed on Regulation 124A issued by the appellant organization, which is extracted hereinbelow :
“124A ** A Encashment of Leave
(1) Subject to the provision of sub- regulator(2), an employee on Indian scale of pay shall be eligible to encash privilege leave in accordance with the
following conditions, namely:-
Regulations 124A (1)
(a) The encashment of Privilege Leave shall be allowed at the option of the employee.
(b)The maximum number of days for which leave can be encashed shall be half of the Privilege Leave lying at the credit of an employee on the date
of encashment reduced by one year’s entitlement to be retained at the credit of the employee.
(c) encashment of Privilege Leave shall be allowed only once in a financial year:
(d) For the purpose of encashment of Privilege Leave only pay as counting for provident fund contribution and additional dearness allowance shall be
taken into account:
(e) The rate of encashment per day shall be calculated on the basis of the emoluments specified in condition (d) and drawn by an employee in the
month preceding the month in which he applies for encashment divided by thirty:
(f) No encashment of Privilege leave shall be permissible to an employee during the period of his suspension from service.
(g) No deduction other than income-tax shall be made from the amount payable if the encashment is for a period less than thirty days.
(h) The amount payable towards the privilege leave allowed to be encashed shall not be reckoned as pay for any purpose including Provident Fund
contribution:
(i) The period of Privilege leave permitted to be encashed shall not be reckoned for the purpose of earning Privilege league or any other kind of
leave.â€
The learned Single Judge after due consideration of the submission made on behalf of the appellants inter alia observed as follows in paragraph 7
of the impugned order dated 22.03.2017:
“7. I cannot agree with the argument urged on behalf of the respondent no. 2/employer because no doubt logically as regards a person who does
not fly, it would not be possible to calculate total number of hours of flying in a month for determining the hourly of flying allowance per month,
however, the language of Rule 124A with its sub para (d) has to be read with the respondent no. 2’s own circulars dated 8.9.1972 and 28.5.1974
which are produced above. These circulars in clear cut terms allow payment of flying allowance even as regards the leave period of the Executive
Pilot, and which circulars therefore remove doubt as regards non-payment of flying allowance during the accumulated leave period, by clearly using
the language of payment of flying allowance for the leave periods which are accumulated.â€
Having heard learned counsel appearing on behalf of the parties and perused the case record, we are of the view that, a conjoint reading of the
circulars dated 08.09.1972 and 28.05.1974, as well as, the said Regulation 124A requires that for the period of leave which stood to the credit of the
respondents as PMU pilots, on the date of their becoming medically unfit, they are entitled inter alia to payment of flying allowances in addition to the
grant of full pay.
In view of the foregoing discussion, in our considered view, flying allowances that had accrued to the respondents for the period of leave which
stood to their credit on the date of their becoming medically unfit, are liable to be disbursed to them at the time of encashing such leave, according to
the extant rules and Regulations of the appellant organization.
Therefore, the argument advanced by the appellant to the effect that the appellants as Executive pilots are not entitled to flying allowances for the
leaves that stood to their credit or that all applicable allowances have been disbursed is untenable and are rejected.
We are, therefore, of the opinion that the present appeals warrant no interference with the order dated 22nd March, 2017, passed by the learned
Single Judge of this Court.
However, it is made clear that this Court has not expressed any opinion on the mode of calculating and converting the number of days of
accumulated leave of the respondent, in relation to the flying allowance payable thereon, but only determined the issue elaborated in the present case
of executive pilots being entitled thereto, at the time of encashment of accumulated leave, upon being declared PMU. The issue struck hereinabove is
decided in the affirmative and in favour of the respondents.
The present appeals are accordingly dismissed with no order as to costs. Pending applications also stand disposed off.