Air India has a waiting list passengers counter

Recently I had been to New Delhi on official work and had travelled by Kingfisher. The Departure terminal for Kingfisher and Air India are the same and I was shocked to see a counter for “Waiting List Passengers” on the Air India side. This is counter No.26 in New Delhi Domestic Airport (Terminal-1A). I don’t know about international flights but certainly domestic airlines don’t have a waiting list and certainly not Air India I suppose with the sort of service they provide. Domestic Airlines however good they maybe run, with a few seats unoccupied, such being the case, how can Air India Conceptualize a waiting list passengers counter? They seem to be lost in the time frame when they had the monopoly over the skies and air travelers had to contend with whatever they dished out. The arrogance of the person who feels the need for such a counter needs to be appreciated. It is such a comic relief while checking in, if you happen to notice