IANS | 28 Apr, 2024
The Delhi High Court on Friday directed aviation watchdog, the
Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA), to process, within five
working days, the deregistration applications for aircraft leased by
grounded airline Go First, which is undergoing insolvency proceedings.
Justice Tara Vitasta Ganju also declined the Resolution Professional's plea to keep the order in abeyance for a week.
The
court also rejected the DGCA's communications from May 2023, which had
put lessors' deregistration applications on hold due to Go First
entering a moratorium.
As per the court's directive, the RP must
provide updated maintenance details to the lessors and is barred from
accessing the aircraft henceforth.
Besides SpiceJet Chairman and
Managing Director Ajay Singh, and Busy Bee Airways Private Ltd, Sky One,
an aviation company headquartered in Sharjah, had also submitted the
bid for GoFirst. However, bidding results are yet to be declared.
Following
the court directions, Skyone Chairman Jaideep Mirchandani claimed that
as far as their bid for Go First is concerned, the de-registration does
not alter their plans for the Indian aviation industry.
"If our
bid goes through, Sky One can bring in its own assets to run and revive
the airline as we are experienced lessors,” he said.
Earlier, the
high court had asked the RP of Go First to file an affidavit in response
to a lessor's plea seeking contempt action, alleging that the RP had
not complied with the court's order to allow inspection and maintenance
of the aircraft.
In October last year, the court allowed aircraft
lessors to engage security personnel round-the-clock to safeguard their
aircraft parked at rest for several months.
In an interim order on
July 5, 2023, the court permitted the lessors to inspect their aircraft
at least twice a month and carry out maintenance.
Justice Ganju,
in October, had asked Go First’s RP to share documents regarding the
maintenance of aircraft, engines and airframes with its lessors. She had
said that court orders must be followed in letter and spirit, warning
that further orders might be necessary if compliance is not achieved.
Lessor,
DAE (SY 22) 13 Ireland Designated Activity Company, had filed a
petition seeking contempt proceedings against the RP, claiming that the
aircraft were not being properly maintained, required documents were not
provided, and court-directed inspections were being denied.
Several other lessors had also raised similar issues during the hearing.
On
May 26 last year, aircraft lessors - Pembroke Aircraft Leasing 11 Ltd,
SMBC Aviation Capital Ltd, Accipiter Investments Aircraft 2 Ltd and EOS
Aviation 12 (Ireland) Ltd - had moved the high court seeking
deregistration of their planes by the DGCA to take them back from the
airline.
The low-cost airline first stopped flying on May 3, 2023.
The airline had approached the National Company Law Tribunal "due to
the ever-increasing number of failing engines supplied by Pratt &
Whitney's International Aero Engines, which has resulted in Go First
having to ground 25 aircraft (equivalent to approximately 50 per cent of
its Airbus A320neo aircraft fleet) as of May 1, 2023".
The
National Company Law Appellate Tribunal on May 22, 2003, upheld the
NCLT's May 10 order for insolvency proceedings against Go First in a
setback to efforts of its lessors to repossess their aircraft and asked
the lessors to file an appeal before the NCLT.
On lessors’
petitions citing the refusal of their pleas for deregistration of their
aircraft, the DGCA had told the high court that it was due to a
technical glitch on its portal that the applications of several aircraft
lessors were shown as ‘rejected’. It had said it was not processing
such requests after a moratorium on financial obligations and transfer
of assets of the crisis-hit airline post insolvency resolution
proceedings.
The lessors had said it is "illegitimate" of the DGCA
to deny deregistration, contending that Go First has no right to use
their aircraft as the leases concerning them have been terminated.