Karnataka High Court on Tuesday dismissed a public interest litigation (PIL) filed against the privatization of Mangaluru International Airport. The state-run airport operated by the Airports Authority of India (AAI), was taken over by the Adani Group on October 31 and has commenced commercial operations there.
The PIL filed by the Airports Authority Employees Union had sought to quash a 2019 cabinet decision approving the leasing of three airports including the one at Mangaluru, terming the same as “illegal, arbitrary and beyond the scope of the Airport Authority Act, 1994.”
A Division Bench of Acting Chief Justice Satish Chandra Sharma and Justice Sachin Shankar Magadum however said that since the leasing Mangaluru airport was done based on a Government of India policy, there was no scope for the HC’s intervention.
