HC upholds policy to ground overweight air hostesses

Dismissing a petition filed some Indian Airlines air hostesses, the Delhi High Court on Wednesday upheld the policy of Indian Airlines to ground overweight air hostesses. A bench headed by Justice A K Sikri dismissed the petition filed by some Indian Airlines air hostesses, who were grounded due to putting on weight excessive to the limit fixed by the airlines. The court had on 5th May reserved it's judgment on a bunch of petitions of Indian Airlines' air hostesses challenging their grounding for being overweight. The petitioners had also challenged the Airlines' circular of withdrawing permissible overweight limit of 3 kg over and above the upper limit as laid down for the cabin crew. Challenging the grounding of air hostesses due to their weight, advocate Arvind Sharma appearing for the petitioners had contended that the action was arbitrary and illegal. "There is no connection between weight and performance of duty when one is medically fit. Weight is not a criteria of fitness," Sharma had contended. The petitioners had challenged the judgment of single bench of the High Court which had upheld the Airlines' policy of grounding overweight air hostesses. Additional Solicitor General Gopal Subramanium appearing for the Airlines' had contended that the action taken against them was justified. "It was clearly mentioned in their contract that their job could be terminated in case they put on weight above the permissible limit and they have just been grounded on a condition that they would be allowed to fly after losing weight," Subramanium had said.

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