Summary:
Chennai, Dec 3 (PTI) An employees" union on Friday moved the Madras High Court with a prayer to restrain the Union Civil Aviation Ministry and Air India from proceeding further with the process of the national carrier"s disinvestment without taking appropriate steps to protect the rights of the staff.
The court, in interim relief to the petitioner, restrained the Ministry and other authorities concerned from evicting the members of the Air Corporation Employees" Union in Meenambakkam here from their residences provided by the management of Air India Limited.
Justice V Parthiban, who granted the relief while admitting a writ petition from the association by its president C Udayashankar, also restrained the authorities concerned from discontinuing all the medical facilities the members were hitherto enjoying.
The Union government had in October signed a share purchase agreement with Tata Sons for the sale of Air India for Rs 18,000 crore, with the Centre earlier accepting an offer by Talace Pvt Ltd, a unit of the holding company of the salt-to-software conglomerate, to pay Rs 2,700 crore cash and take over Rs 15,300 crore of the airline"s debt.
The main prayer of the petitioner was to restrain the Ministry and Air India Limited from proceeding further with the process of disinvestment without taking appropriate steps to protect the terms and conditions of service and the rights of the employees, represented by the union.
It also prayed the court to issue an interim direction to the Ministry to disclose the contents of the share purchase agreement entered into by them with Talace Private Limited on October 25 this year.