Pilots give Kingfisher 21-day ultimatum before legal action

Pilots of the grounded Kingfisher Airlines pilots have served a legal notice to the airline's management seeking recovery of their salary dues and compensation for mental harassment within 21 days, or face another winding-up petition in the high court.

Engineers of the airline are also planning to take a similar course of action.

"A notice has been served on Kingfisher Airlines (KFA) under section 433 and 434 of the Companies Act, which allows for starting winding up proceedings in case a company has outstanding dues and fails to clear them," said Ajay Brahme, the pilots' advocate.

Brahme added that criminal proceedings will be initiated against the airline for "cheating and fraud".

"We have also sought action under the Income Tax Act as the airline deducted tax deducted at source (TDS) but did not deposit this with the tax authorities and failed to give Form 16 to employees," the lawyer said.

While the airline stopped paying salary eight months back, even earlier for many months it used to deduct TDS from pay but reportedly failed to deposit it with tax authorities.