Out of Air India,Jadhav now faces Cabinet wrath

The civil aviation ministry in its report to the ACC has recommended action against Jadhav.

A day after removing Arvind Jadhav from the post of chairman and managing director of Air India,the government is set to initiate disciplinary action against him for refusing to comply with a Cabinet order on executive appointments in the airline.

The Appointments Committee of Cabinet (ACC),headed by the Prime Minister,is likely to issue a show-cause notice to Jadhav for not implementing its orders,said a top government source.

The management turned a blind eye towards compliance of the order despite repeated instructions from the ministry, the source said,adding that,This has been viewed very seriously and he may have to face the music.

The civil aviation ministry in its report to the ACC has recommended action against Jadhav. Sources said he could be suspended if he is unable to provide a satisfactory explanation.

In June,the ACC had ordered for the reinstatement of two senior airline executives whose five-year term on the board of the airlines had expired.

While rejecting the ministrys proposal for extending their tenure for three months,the ACC ordered that their lien will stand.

Accordingly,the civil aviation ministry ordered that both the executives,who were handed release orders by the airline in April,be re-instated and compliance be reported to it within 48 hours.

Story continues below this ad

The order has not been complied with till date, said a senior ministry official. The offices of these two executives were locked,their salaries were stopped and perks withdrawn, said the source.

While Jadhav did not respond to text messages,senior airline sources said that the former CMD had responded,in a letter,to the ministrys order a week ago. The letter,claimed sources,gave a detailed explanation as to why these two senior executives could not be re-appointed in the board.

Jadhav while stating in his letter that the lien exercised by the two at the time of being appointed to the board had expired,he had sought ministrys guidance on the matter. Jadhav,who has been repatriated to his Karnataka cadre,was appointed at the helm in May 2009 for a period of three years. Nandan,who will assume charge today as full-time CMD for a three-year tenure,is a 1982 batch Uttar Pradesh cadre IAS. He was joint secretary in the civil aviation ministry. Jadhav,who came under fire for airlines mounting losses,fell out with the ministry for his anti-labour policies, said the source.