Delhi High Court quashes BJP MP Subramanian Swamy plea seeking Air India disinvestment process

The Delhi High Court on Thursday dismissed the petition filed by BJP MP Subramanian Swamy seeking to quash the Air India disinvestment process. The division bench comprising 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 court also intimated that the detailed judgment will be made available in the public domain shortly.

Tata group had emerged as the winning bidder for Air India, the government in October last year signed the share purchase agreement with Tata Sons for the sale of the airline for Rs. 18,000 crore.

The Rajya Sabha member immediately took to Twitter 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.

Terming the disinvestment, a ‘gigantic corruption’, Swamy had sought a full-fledged investigation into the role of the government and the process which he claimed was lacking in accountability. Citing a media interaction by SpiceJet's CEO Ajay Singh, he had submitted that SpiceJet had admitted that it had participated in the bidding to prevent a single bidder situation, accusing Ajay Singh of acting in collusion to allow Tata Sons-backed Talace Private Limited to win the bid for Air India.

Swamy had argued that SpiceJet was under insolvency as per an order passed by the Madras High Court and wanted that its status as a bidder should be invalidated. Swamy contended that Tata Sons had a stake in Air Asia which was facing criminal proceedings.

The plea was opposed by the counsel for Centre and Talace Pvt Ltd.