The National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) on Tuesday cleared the Kalrock-Jalan consortium plan for revival of Jet Airways but rejected its demand for a historicity of airport slots and traffic rights.
A bench of Janab Mohhamed Ajmal and V Nallasenapathy approved the resolution plan with riders. Allocation of slots will be considered as and when these are applied for and historic slots will not be available, the bench ordered. The consortium will have ninety days to seek all regulatory permissions and complete formalities for restarting the airline and can seek a further extension if required.
The Kalrock-Jalan consortium won the bid last October to restart the airline by proposing nearly Rs 1,200 crore payout to its creditors. One of the key demands of the consortium has been historicity of slots and traffic rights allotted to Jet Airways, a move opposed by the civil aviation ministry. The tribunal rejected the consortium’s demand.
“This was a unique case as it was the first corporate insolvency resolution plan in the aviation industry where numerous intricacies pertaining to aviation laws were involved and the role of ministry of civil aviation was crucial as the resolution plan hinged upon the issue of slots and bilateral rights,” said advocate Ashish Mehta, who appeared for the ministry.
Jet Airways, founded in 1993, has been under insolvency for two years after it shut operations in April 2019.
The resolution professional had received claims of over Rs 44,000 crore from financial creditors and employees of which claims to the tune of Rs 15,400 crore were admitted. Financial creditors such as State Bank of India, Yes Bank and others claimed Rs 11,344 crore but claims worth only Rs 7,453 crore were admitted.
The tribunal also rejected the Sahara group application challenging the resolution plan. Sahara Group, which sold Air Sahara to Jet Airways, hs been locked in a bitter litigation over the purchase consideration. The litigation is still pending in Supreme Court.
The Sahara group had said that its Rs 1,600 crore claim against Jet Airways was secured by a non disposal undertaking given by Jet Airways over 750,000 square feet property in Bandra Kurla complex in Mumbai. Sahara Group had requested for exclusion of property from the assets in the resolution plan and to be considered as a secured creditor. However, the tribunal rejected its plea.
