The Karnataka high court on Tuesday dismissed a public interest litigation (PIL) filed against the privatisation of the Mangaluru International Airport.
Adani Group took over the state-run airport, operated by the Airports Authority of India (AAI), on October 31 last year and started commercial operations there.
The PIL filed by the Airports Authority Employees Union had sought quashing of a 2019 cabinet decision approving the leasing of three airports, including the one at Mangaluru, terming the move 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 said that since the Mangaluru airport was lease out based on a government of India policy, there was no scope for the HC’s intervention. A copy of the bench’s order is awaited.