The Delhi High Court on Thursday dismissed the debt-ridden petition of BJP leader Subramanian Swamy. Air India disinvestment In the process Tata emerged as the highest bidder for ₹18,000 crore.
“The writ petition is wholly devoid of merit and is accordingly dismissed,” the court said, adding that it found merit in the Centre’s stand that “each day, approximately Rs.20 crore is invested by the government to run the airline.” going” and “successful bidder needs to invest huge capital to infuse new life in the respective airline”.
The court also agreed with the Center that they were working towards kicking off the disinvestment process, and any delay would cause loss to the exchequer besides creating uncertainty among the existing employees.
Mr Swamy, who appeared in person, had sought a direction to the government to quash the current Air India disinvestment process, terming it “arbitrary, unconstitutional, unfair” and “rigged in favor of Tata”.
He had said that the only other bidder in the disinvestment process was a consortium led by the owner of SpiceJet, which was facing insolvency proceedings in the Madras High Court and thus could not bid. “It means that there was only one bidder and there could not be a bid,” he argued.
‘A policy decision’
Solicitor General Tushar Mehta had opposed the plea, saying that the disinvestment was a policy decision which could not be challenged in courts. He said 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 had bid for Air India. “This [consortium] It was led by its owner Ajay Singh.”
Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs on October 8, 2021 Highest price bid of Tales Pvt Ltd approved For the sale of Air India’s equity shareholding in Air India Express Limited and Air India Air Transport Services Limited as well as Government of India’s 100% equity shareholding in Air India.
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