No stay on AAI employees' transfer: SC

The Supreme Court on declined to stay the transfer of an estimated 1,600 employees of Airport Authority of India (AAI) to various places following privatisation of Delhi and Mumbai airports.

A bench of Justices B N Aggrawal and G S Singhvi agreed to examine the issue tommorow after senior counsel Indira Jaising and Colin Gonzalves, appearing for the aggrieved workers, assailed the move of AAI.

Solicitor General G E Vahanvati, however, told the apex court that he was "giving a categorical assurance that there would be no retrenchment."

Gonzalves told the bench during the mentioning time that AAI had transferred hundreds of employees from Mumbai and Delhi to places like Kolaphur and Pune where the workers had absolutely no work to do.

The management and operation of Delhi and Mumbai airports, according to the counsel, would be taken over by the private consortiums-- Delhi International Airport Limited and Mumbai International Airport Limited from May 3, 2009, as per the agreement reached with the AAI, in 2006.