The Bombay High Court on Wednesday asked the Centre how many pilots were deployed to fly the Vande Bharat flights to rescue Indians stranded in foreign countries at the onset of the COVID-19 outbreak and how many hours they had flown.
It also asked the government how many pilots had been vaccinated for COVID-19 so far.
A division bench of Chief Justice Dipankar Datta and Justice G.S. Kulkarni was hearing a petition filed by the Federation of Indian Pilots seeking compensation of ₹10 crore for the families of pilots who died of COVID-19 in the line of duty. It also demanded that pilots be vaccinated and provided insurance cover.
Senior advocate Prasad Dhakephalkar, appearing for the petitioners, informed the court that at least 13 pilots had died due to COVID-19. Since pilots were frontline workers working through the pandemic, they should get vaccination and compensation on priority.
The bench said, “We want to know how many pilots are yet to be vaccinated, how many are vaccinated, how many pilots are deployed on Vande Bharat flights…what were their duty hours and so on”. It directed the federation to file an affidavit.
