The Delhi High Court has upheld a judgment of its Single Benches putting the seal of approval on a decision by Indian Airlines to ground overweight air hostesses and cabin crew members from flight duty, The Hindu newspaper reported on June 5.

The judgment by a division bench comprising Justice A.K. Sikri and Justice J.R. Midha came on June 4 on a review petition against a Single Bench judgment by the affected air hostesses and cabin crew members. The Division Bench also allowed Indian Airlines to recover excess money payable to employees on flight duty even after their grounding on a direction by the Court.

The Single Bench has justified the airline's decision to ground them on account of the requirement of the public sector company to stay in business.

The petitioners had also challenged a circular issued by the airline in 2006 withdrawing the permissible overweight limit of three kilograms over and above the upper weight limit for them. The court dismissed the plea as well.

Counsel for the petitioners argued that the air hostesses and the cabin crew members had cleared the medical fitness tests to be on flight duty. When their clients were declared medically fit to do flight duty, they could not be grounded on account of being overweight. The decision was arbitrary, they argued.

Counsel for the airline submitted that the petitioners were withdrawn from flight duty when they failed to meet the minimum physical fitness standards. It was clearly mentioned in their contracts that their jobs could be terminated if they put on weight beyond the permissible limit. The counsel submitted that they had been grounded with the direction that they would not be put on flight duty even if they lost the weight they had gained.

Justifying the decision of the public sector airline to suspend the overweight employees on ground duty to maintain its competitive edge vis-a-vis the private airlines, the Bench said: "Entry of private airlines in the business has resulted in severe competition, and Indian Airlines has to meet this challenge by ensuring that its air hostesses and cabin crew members remained physically fit."

On maintaining the physical fitness, the Bench said: "There has been much debate about skinny bodies vis-a-vis healthy bodies, but there is no scope for any debate on overweight people. It is universally accepted that overweight people have tendency to suffer from diseases."