Bengaluru: An aspiring flight attendant with Air India, she has missed her dream to fly while on a job by an inch literally. But the 23-year-old from Mangaluru has gone down fighting. Determind to land the job, she challenged the airline's decision to reject her only because she was an inch short of its requirement.
While it preferred its attendants to be at least 5ft 2 inches tall, she was 5ft, 1 inch.
Unfortunately, for her, the high court has gone against her, upholding Air India's prerogative to reject her for falling short of its eligibility criteria.
Having responded to the advertisement for the job, which said the minimum height for the job was 157.5 cms (5’2”) for a female candidate, the girl was invited for the interview by the airline, which also issued her an offer letter. But it later withdrew it saying she was not tall enough to become its flight attendant.
In its order, the court noted that the girl did not meet the requirement of the airline on the height of its attendants and recalled that it had in its offer letter made it clear in clause 25 that it could be withdrawn if she did not meet the prescribed eligibility and medical fitness criteria.
"It goes without saying that as long as the petitioner has not satisfied the fitness criteria , she does not have any vested right to seek selection and appointment to the post in question. In the instant case the authorities have noticed the shortcoming and the ineligibility of the petitioner before even permitting her to report for training," the court said in its June 2 order, dismissing the girl’s plea.
