Delhi High Court gives provisional clearance for appointment of new DGCA

New Delhi: After receiving a provisional clearance from the Delhi High Court, the civil aviation ministry will now re-process the appointment of an IAS officer, Nasim Zaidi, as director general of the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA). His name will now be put up before the appointments committee of the Union cabinet once again, just a few months after it was originally put up for its consideration.

The process is being repeated as Zaidi's appointment was challenged before the Central Administrative Tribunal (CAT),which found merit in the appeal and overturned the appointment. The government then went in appeal against the ruling before the Delhi High Court, which has now provisionally cleared the appointment.

The ministry cleared the appointment of Nasim Zaidi, then India's representative at the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), as the replacement for incumbent DGCA chief Kanu Gohain in June this year. However,  before the appointment could be cleared by the appointments committee, Gohain's deputy, AK Chopra, moved the CAT, the government's appellate body on administrative matters and filed his objections.

Zaidi's position at the ICAO is to be taken up by RK Singh, at present a joint secretary in the civil aviation ministry. Zaidi's term at the ICAO ended in September.

DGCA is the country's civil aviation regulator which oversees all civil aviation functions including aircraft registration, formulation of airworthiness standards for civilian aircraft and their licensing. The regulator also oversees licensing of pilots, aircraft maintenance engineers, flight engineers and air traffic controllers.