The court ruled that delays caused by the COVID-19 pandemic should be considered in evaluating the recency requirement for a Commercial Pilot License, allowing for a re-assessment of the petitioner's application.

JUDGMENT

Prathiba M. Singh, J. (Oral)--This hearing has been done through hybrid mode (physical and virtual hearing).

2. The Petitioner, is a pilot who successfully completed his flight training in Florida, USA, and obtained a Commercial Pilot License issued by the Federal Aviation Administration, U.S. Department of Transportation (hereinafter `FAA'). The Petitioner intended to obtain his Indian Commercial Pilot Licence (hereinafter `ICPL') on the strength of the flying experience he had obtained in the USA.

3. The procedure to apply and obtain the ICPL is governed by the Aircraft Act, 1934 and the AIRCRAFT RULES , 1937 (hereinafter `the Rules, 1937'), framed thereunder. One of the requirements under the Act and Rules is also referred to as `recency requirement'. As per this requirement, the flying experience only six months prior to the date of the making the application for an ICPL, would be taken into consideration towards fulfilment of the pre-requisites of the application. This requirement is stipulated in Section J(1)(e) of Schedule II of the Rules, 1937 and reads as under:

"1. Requirements for issue of Licence -- An applicant for a Commercial Pilot's Licence shall satisfy the following requirements:

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(e) Experience-- He shall produce evidence of having satisfactorily completed as a pilot of an aeroplane within a period of five years immediately preceding the date of application for licence not less than two hundred hours of flight time, which shall include--

(i) not less than one hundred hours of flight time as Pilot-in-Command of which not less than fifteen hours shall have been completed within a period of six months immediately preceding the date of application for licence;

(ii) not less than twenty hours of cross-country flight time as Pilot-in-Command including a cross-country flight of not less than three hundred nautical miles in the course of which full stop landings at two different aerodromes shall be made;

(iii) not less than ten hours of instrument time of which not more than five hours may be on an approved simulator; and

(iv) not less than five hours of flight time by night including a minimum of ten take-offs and ten landings as Pilot-in-Command as (sole manipulator of controls) carried out within six months immediately preceding the date of application for licence.

Provided that in case of an applicant who is in possession of a Commercial Pilot's Licence (Helicopters/Airline Transport Pilot's Licence (Helicopters) and who has satisfactorily completed not less than 1000 hours of flight time as Pilot-in-Command of a helicopter, the above experience requirement of two hundred hours as pilot of an aeroplane shall be reduced to one hundred hours, which shall include -

(i) Not less than seventy five hours of flight time as pilot-in-command including a minimum of twenty five hours of cross country flight time and ten hours of instrument time of which not less than five hours may be on approved simulator;

(ii) Not less than five hours of flight time by night including ten takeoffs and landing patterns; and

(iii) Not less than ten hours of flight time on aeroplane within a period of six months immediately preceding the date of application for issue of licence"

As per the above provision, a pilot seeking an ICPL requires:

i) Experience of flying for at least 200 hours within a period of five years preceding the date of application;

ii) Of the said 200 hours, at least 100 hours of flight time has to be as a pilot-in-command;

iii) Of the said 100 hours, at least 15 hours of flying experience ought to be within a period of six m