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1. Aggrieved by the Civil Aviation Requirement (CAR) dated 1-9-2005 issued by the Director General of Civil Aviation, second respondent herein, requiring the Commercial Pilots to give a notice period of at least six months to their employer indicating their intention to leave the job and the proposed penal action under Rule 39A(2) for non-compliance of the above said requirement, the Indian Commercial Pilots Association has filed the present writ petition, seeking a Writ of Certiorari to quash the said circular.

2. The members of the petitioner-association are Commercial Pilots, holding the Commercial Pilot's Licence issued by the Central Government, working with the Indian Airlines. The second respondent issued the impugned circular dated 1-9-2005 requiring the commercial pilots working for any Air Transport Undertaking to give a notice period of at least six months to their employer indicating their intention to leave the job and shall not refuse to undertake the flight duties assigned to them. The impugned circular also indicated that failure to comply with the above requirement may lead to action against them inter alia under Rule 39A(2) of the Aircraft Rules, 1937.

11. Heard the learned Counsel for the petitioner and the learned Solicitor General appearing for the respondents.

12. Gone are the days when the civil aviation in the country was under the monopoly of the Government of India and the skies over India and abroad were commercially exploited by the fleets of the aircraft owned and operated by Air India, Indian Airlines, Vayudooth and Pawan Hans, which are statutory corporations owned and managed by the Government of India. The situation has now underwent a complete sea-change. The liberalisation of economic and industrial policies and the privatisation policy of the Government paved way for the private entrepreneurs to enter into almost all the major industrial and commercial fields, including the civil aviation sector, which were hitherto under the monopoly of the Government. There is phenomenal increase in the entry of private airliners in the civil aviation sector, leading to acquisition of more number of aircrafts with state of the art technology. As a natural corollary, currently there is a great demand in the civil aviation sector for the aircraft crews, more particularly the Commercial Pilots having rich and vast experience with more number of flying hours to their credit. Attracted and lured by the pay packages and perks offered by the private airliners, the Commercial Pilots, more particularly those gained rich experience while under the employment of the State-owned airline undertakings, started migrating to private airliners. Such abrupt resignation of the Commercial Pilots paralysed the business operations of the State-owned airline undertakings. This is the present state of affairs in the civil aviation industry. The Government, therefore, felt the compelling necessity of introducing certain regulatory measures to protect the interests of the travelling public. The result was the issuance of the impugned circular by the Director General of Civil Aviation vide Civil Aviation Requirement, Series X Part II, dated 1-9-2005, requiring the Pilots to give a 'Notice Period' of at least six months to their employer indicating their intention to leave the job.