The Delhi High Court on Thursday dismissed BJP leader Subramanian Swamy’s plea challenging the debt-laden Air India’s disinvestment process in which the Tatas emerged as the highest bidder at ₹18,000 crore.
“The writ petition is wholly devoid of merit and is accordingly dismissed,” the court said, adding it found merit in the stand of the Centre that “each day, approximately Rs. 20 crore is being invested to run the airline by the government” and “the successful bidder needs to invest huge capital to infuse new life into the concerned airline”.
The court also agreed with the Centre that they have been working towards closing the disinvestment process, and any further delay would cause loss to the public exchequer, besides creating uncertainty amongst the existing employees.
Mr. Swamy, who appeared in person, had sought a direction to the government to quash the present Air India disinvestment process, terming it “arbitrary, unconstitutional, unfair” and “rigged in favour of the Tatas.”
He had said that the only other bidder in the disinvestment process was a consortium led by the SpiceJet owner, which was facing insolvency proceedings in the Madras High Court and thus could not have bid. “This means there was only one bidder and the bid could not have taken place,” he had argued.
‘A policy decision’
Solicitor General Tushar Mehta had contested the petition, saying disinvestment was a policy decision that could not be challenged in courts. He stated that the national carrier was losing thousands of crores every day. He had argued that though SpiceJet was facing insolvency proceedings in the Madras High Court, it was never part of the consortium that bid for Air India. “It [consortium] was led by its owner Ajay Singh,” he added.
On October 8, 2021, the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs approved the highest price bid of Talace Private Limited for sale of 100% equity shareholding of the Government of India in Air India, along with the equity shareholding of Air India in Air India Express Limited and Air India Air Transport Services Limited.
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