Indian Airports Kamgar Union vs The Union of India (UOI) and Others

S.R. Bannurmath, C.J.—This Public Interest Litigation(PIL) is filed by the Trade Union called Indian Airports Kamgar Union, represented by its Secretary with the following prayers:

To issue a writ of mandamus appropriate writ order or direction directing the 3rd respondent to take appropriate steps to withdraw Exhibit P2 and related orders and also directed to keep the ''international status'' to Trivandrum Airport,

To issue a writ of mandamus appropriate writ, order or direction directing the 1st and 2nd respondents to make appropriate order to keep the ''international status'' of the Trivandrum Airport as per their decision taken by the 1st respondent in 1990,

To issue a writ of mandamus appropriate writ, order or direction directing the 1st and 3rd respondents to take appropriate steps to merge the "IAAI and ''NAAI'' as per the Exhibit-P5 without fail, to issue a writ of mandamus,

To issue a writ of mandamus appropriate writ, order or direction directing the 3rd respondent to hand over ''independent charge'' to the 5th respondent in dealing with the administrative problems and also directed to reinstate the ''status'' and ''powers'' prior 19th July 2007 as evidenced from Exhibit-P2,

To issue such other orders or directions which this Hon''ble Court may deem fit and proper in the facts and circumstances of the case so as to secure the ends of justice.

It is contended that the Airport at Thiruvananthapuram which was established in the year 1932 as a flying club has been time and again upgraded and has been given international status in the year 1991 and now by the impugned order dated 19.07.07 the designation of the then International Airport Director is being changed to General manager of the Airport, which according to the petitioner amounts to degrading the post and thereby affecting the powers of the said official. On perusal of Ext.P2, it is noted that it was a policy decision taken by the Airport authorities of India to restructure and integrate all the functions of the Thiruvananthapuram International Airport and accordingly it is to be headed by the Airport Director at the level of General Manager instead of the designated name of International Airport Director.

If there is a case of degradation, it is for the person whose post is alleged to be degraded would be the aggrieved person. So far as the alleged degradation or taking away the powers are concerned, it is a policy matter of the Airport Authority of India and such policy matters cannot be subjected to the jurisdiction of this Court asking to invoke the extraordinary jurisdiction under Article 226 of the Constitution of India by persons unconcerned in the form of Public Interest Litigation. Merely because, the petitioner Trade Union feels that there is a degradation, it cannot be taken for consideration by this Court as the person aggrieved itself is not complaining about the same. More over as the decision has been taken as long back in the year 2007, waking up like "Rip Van Vinkle" the petitioner Union has come up with this alleged PIL and on the ground of delay and laches itself the writ petition is liable to be rejected. Considering the records on merit also we find no merits in any of the contentions of the petitioner.

For the reasons stated above, we find absolutely no merit in the writ petition and it is dismissed.