Delhi High Court rejects Subramanian Swamy’s case against Air India sale to Tatas

The Delhi High Court, on January 6, dismissed the petition filed by BJP MP Subramanian Swamy challenging the disinvestment process for the sale of Air India.

The division bench of the high court comprising its chief justice DN Patel and Justice Jyoti Singh had heard the arguments and reserved its order on the plea for the sale of Air India on January 4. On January 6, the court delivered its ruling to dismiss the plea.

The detailed judgment will be made available in the public domain shortly, the court intimated.

The Rajya Sabha member took to Twitter immediately after the pronouncement of the order to hint that the case may be taken to the Supreme Court on appeal basis the rationale and reasoning spelled out in the high court’s verdict.

“The Delhi HC dismisses my WP (writ petition) on Air India. But reasoned Order is being uploaded. After reading that we shall decide on going to SC,” Swamy tweeted.

The Delhi HC dismisses my WP on Air India. But reasoned Order is being uploaded. After reading that we shall decide on going to SC

Related stories

• 
  Boeing, Honeywell sued by Air India crash victim families: Report
• 
  AI171 plane crash: Pilot Captain Sumeet Sabharwal's father seeks another probe saying AAIB findings ...
• 
  Tatas to collaborate in defence 'wherever there is scope', says chairman N Chandra during visit to S...

— Subramanian Swamy (@Swamy39) January 6, 2022

Subramanian Swamy earlier urged the court to quash the entire process through which the airline was bought out by the Tata Group and also called for the revocation of all approvals, including those to be secured in the future for this sale.

Swamy was seeking a detailed investigation into the disinvestment process. He not only said that the process was rigged in favour of the Tatas but proceeded to call the process a “gigantic corruption”. The Rajya Sabha member prayed the court to direct a CBI inquiry into the role played by the officials in this disinvestment process.

On January 4, during the course of the hearing, Swamy told the court that he was not opposed to the general policy of disinvestment but claimed there was illegality, impropriety, and arbitrariness involved in the sale of Air India and as such, this case needed to be probed thoroughly.

The government informed the court that the decision to sell Air India was taken back in 2017 as the government could no longer stand to bear the losses the airline was running into. Tata group flagged its apprehension about delaying the completion of the sale of the airline due to such litigations and noted that selling and reviving the airline business is not an easy task.

The government, as well as the Tata group, opposed Swamy’s attempt at drawing a link between the Air India sale with Air Asia. The company taking over Air India is a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Tata group and is 100% Indian, lawyers arguing for the government and the conglomerate told the court.

The court had proceeded to reserve the order on January 4 after hearing the case at somewhat length and directing all parties to file their written notes in stipulated time.