Lagatar24 Desk
New Delhi, Jan 6: The Delhi High Court on Thursday dismissed the plea filed by Subramanian Swamy against the Air India disinvestment process. A Bench of Chief Justice DN Patel and Justice Jyoti Singh pronounced its order which was reserved on Tuesday.
Swamy had requested that the Centre set aside and annul any decision or issuance of any further approvals/permissions/permits, etc. by the authorities in relation to the current Air India disinvestment process in his appeal.
Swamy further asked the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) to investigate the role and functioning of the respondent authorities and submit a complete report in the current Air India Disinvestment process solely to the Court, through Advocate Satya Sabarwal.
Recently, Tata Sons had won the bid for acquiring national carrier Air India for Rs 18,000 crore successfully Centre’s attempts to privatize the debt-laden airline.
The central government accepted the highest proposal from a Tata Sons business for 100% equity shares of Air India and Air India Express, as well as a 50% stake in ground-handling company AISATS, in October last year, marking the first privatization in 20 years.
The government signed a share purchase deal with Tata Sons for the sale of national carrier Air India for Rs 18,000 crore on October 25 last year. Tata’s would pay Rs 2,700 crore in cash and assume the airline’s debt of Rs 13,500 crore.
Tata’s outbid the Rs 15,100 crore offer by a factor of two. Tata’s beat the Rs 15,100 crore offer by a consortium led by Spicejet promoter Ajay Singh and the reserve price of Rs 12,906 crore set by the government for the sale of its 100 per cent stake in the loss-making carrier.
In 2021, Air India had a total debt of Rs 61,562 crore. Around 75 per cent of this debt or Rs 46,262 crore will be transferred to a special purpose vehicle AIAHL before handing over the airline to the Tata group.
