Delhi High Court reserves order on Subramanian Swamy’s plea against Air India sale to Tatas

(Representative image)

The Delhi High Court on January 4 reserved its order on BJP MP Subramanian Swamy’s plea challenging the procedure through which Air India selloff took place.

Fixing the date for orders on January 6, a bench headed by Chief Justice DN Patel gave the government as well as the Tata Group time till the end of the day to file their brief notes explaining their case.

Swamy has been afforded tomorrow’s day to respond to the government’s case. The order will be pronounced on January 6, the court said.

Swamy has sought a detailed investigation into the disinvestment process which, he claimed, was rigged in favour of Tatas. He said the “gigantic corruption” calls for a CBI inquiry into the role played by officials in the entire disinvestment process and urged that the report be submitted exclusively to the court.

Arguing the case himself, the MP said that he was not opposed to the general policy of disinvestment and was in fact in favour of it. The specific case of Air India sale, however, reeks of corruption, he argued. “There is no accountability in the process and therefore requires a full-fledged investigation.”

Swamy also urged the court to quash the entire process through which the airline was bought out by the Tata Group. Swamy has prayed before the court to revoke any future approvals that may be granted for the Air India sale.

Raising the question of “impropriety, illegality, and corruption” in this case, Swamy said that the sale was painted as a “great return”. The only second bidder, according to him, was SpiceJet which remained disqualified on account of insolvency proceedings initiated against it before the Madras High Court, he said.

Solicitor General Tushar Mehta said that Swamy’s plea was based on certain misconceptions and sought to outline that SpiceJet was never a part of the consortium to bid for Air India. Moreover, the decision to privatise Air India was a policy decision taken in 2017 and is not a decision taken recently. The government has been bearing the brunt of the losses the airline has been running into which made the need for selling it off more prominent.

Swamy, during his arguments, also invoked the link between Tata Group and Air Asia. But, Senior Advocate Harish Salve, representing the conglomerate, clarified that the company buying out Air India was a wholly owned subsidiary of Tata Sons and was a “100 percent Indian company”.

After hearing the case somewhat at length, the court has given a short date now for the orders on the plea to be pronounced later this week.