JUDGMENT

Jyoti Singh, J. - Petitioners herein were initially inducted by the Respondent as Trainee Pilots and subsequently released as First Officer. Those in permanent employment have been promoted to various ranks thereafter and out of those employed under the Fixed Term Contracts, some Petitioners were promoted to the rank of Captain, while the others were First Officers at the time of filing the present petitions.

2. Challenge is laid in the present petitions to the orders passed by the Respondent on 13.08.2020, except in W.P.(C) 5599/2020 where the impugned order is dated 15.08.2020 and W.P.(C) Nos. 8625/2020 and 8626/2020, where the impugned orders are both dated 16.10.2020, whereby Respondent has accepted the resignations tendered by the Petitioners, after the same were withdrawn by them, well before their acceptance. Mandamus is sought for a direction to the Respondent to reinstate the Petitioners, who were serving as permanent employees, with all consequential benefits of continuity of service, seniority, back wages etc. Petitioners, who were employed on Fixed Term Contracts, have sought directions to the Respondent to abide by their appointment letters and terms of the Contracts and permit them to continue in service till the present Contracts expire, with a further direction for renewal of the Contracts for a further term of 5 years, with consequential benefits. On account of the similitude of facts and common questions of law arising in all the writ petitions, the same are being taken up and decided by this common judgement.

3. Respondent/Air India Limited (erstwhile National Aviation Company of India Limited) is an amalgamation of Air India Limited and Indian Airlines Limited and is incorporated as a Public Limited Company under the Companies Act, 1956. Petitioners in this batch of petitions are Pilots and can be broadly categorised under two heads : (a) Permanent Employees (hereinafter referred to as 'PEs') and (b) Fixed Term Contract Employees (hereinafter referred to as "FTCEs"). Consequent to amalgamation, the harmonized Air India Employees" Service Regulations were formulated, replacing all the previous Service Regulations and Standing Orders applicable to the erstwhile companies. Air India Regulations came into effect from 1.04.2013. PEs are governed by the Service Regulations and FTCEs are governed by the terms of their respective Fixed Term Contracts (hereinafter referred to as "FTCs"). However, both categories of Pilots are admittedly governed by the Civil Aviation Requirement (hereinafter referred to as "CAR") dated 27.10.2009, as amended from time to time.

4. The common thread that runs in all these petitions is a surmountable and vincible challenge to the action of the Respondent in accepting the resignations of the Petitioners, after the same were withdrawn prior to their acceptance. However, for the sake of convenience, with the consent of all the arguing counsels for the respective parties, the writ petitions were categorised into five categories, namely, Categories "A", "B", "C", "D" and "E". Category "A" encompasses only PEs, Categories "B" and "C" include both PEs and FTCEs, Categories "D" and "E" comprise of Pilots inducted under the FTCs. Before embarking further on the facts and the contentions of the parties, it would be useful to understand the categorisation, as that would reflect the varying issues arising in the present set of petitions and the same is as follows:

(i) Category "A" : Petitioners tendered resignations with notice period of six months and withdrew the same within the notice period, but prior to acceptance of the resignations by the Respondent. Writ petitions were filed before the impugned orders accepting resignations were passed for a declaration that the resignations were non est and a direction to continue the Petitioners in service, with consequential benefits.

(ii) Category "B" : Petitioners tendered resignations with notice period of six months and withdrew the same within