Pilots body moves Delhi HC against DGCA for ‘wilful non-compliance’ of fatigue rules
Federation of Indian Pilots (FIP)'s contempt plea alleges the regulator ignored court-mandated FDTL norms, granted illegal relaxations to airlines, and contributed to the aviation chaos that crippled IndiGo’s operations.
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The Delhi High Court will on December 15 hear a contempt of court petition filed by the Federation of Indian Pilots (FIP) accusing the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) of deliberately failing to enforce pilot fatigue rules mandated under the Flight and Duty Time Limitation (FDTL) framework.
Govt slashes IndiGo’s winter schedule by 10% after massive operational meltdown
The pilot body has reportedly alleged that DGCA’s failure to implement the Civil Aviation Requirement (CAR) 2024 as assured to the court earlier this year directly contributed to the operational meltdown that hit the aviation sector last week, with IndiGo cancelling thousands of flights due to crew shortages and rostering failures.
In its plea, FIP reportedly claims the aviation regulator extended undue relaxations to airlines on implementing FDTL norms, in violation of binding undertakings and orders passed by the High Court in April 2025. The petition argues that the FDTL schemes adopted by airlines are inconsistent with the parameters DGCA had agreed to before the court.
The pilots’ federation has reportedly also contested airlines’ claims of crew shortages, asserting that pilots are being under-utilised and even offered flexible contracts with limited flying-hour commitments despite being available for regular rosters.
The High Court had previously closed multiple petitions by pilot groups after being informed that CAR 2024 was in the process of being notified, and had directed airlines to file their revised FDTL schemes with the DGCA within three weeks. The government had told the court that the updated fatigue rules would be rolled out in phases, with a set of clauses effective July 1 and the remainder from November 1, 2025.
FIP now argues that these timelines were ignored, and that DGCA’s failure to enforce safer duty-time norms has jeopardised aviation safety and triggered the crisis currently engulfing the sector.
