New Delhi - India's Supreme Court has asked state-run domestic carrier Indian Airlines to explain why it sacked a cabin crew member for keeping a handlebar moustache, news reports said Tuesday. Indian Airlines had grounded Victor Joynath De in 1998 for sporting a flourishing handlebar moustache and forced him to retire in 2001, three years short of the set retirement age of 55, the Hindustan Times newspaper reported.
The action came after the airlines put out new regulations on the appearance of crew members in 1998 that stipulated: "Flight personnel should be clean-shaven (except Sikhs), with neatly trimmed moustaches not beyond the upper lip." The Sikh religion forbids cutting of hair, beards or moustaches.
De, now 62, claims he had been wearing a handlebar moustache since he joined Indian Airlines as cabin crew member in 1968. He had been promoted to assistant manager and the size of his well-groomed moustache had never been an issue till the new regulation of 1998.
De, a member of London's famous Handlebar Club, was quoted as saying that he wore the long moustache in keeping with family tradition and his spiritual faith and that he trimmed it regularly.
It was also drew attention to the long-whiskered maharaja mascot of India's national carrier Air India, the Telegraph newspaper quoted him as saying.
De had appealed against Indian Airlines decision at the Calcutta high court which had set aside his "compulsory retirement" in August 2002 and ordered that he be reinstated. But the decision was overturned by a division bench of the same court in July 2007 after which De had appealed to India's apex Supreme Court.
"How can somebody be removed from a job because of the size of his moustache?" the Supreme Court bench was quoted as saying during the hearing on Monday. "It's absurd and arbitrary," the bench of two judges said while issuing a notice to Indian Airlines to reply in four weeks.
De is seeking retroactive benefits for his forced retirement.
