The National Company Law Appellate Tribunal (NCLAT) on Tuesday dismissed the clarification applications of both lender banks and Bharatiya Kamgar Sena on the grounds that the appellate authority cannot review an order passed by it.

The NCLAT in its October 21 Order had recorded that all conditions precedent (CPs) had been met “to the satisfaction of the monitoring committee”. However, the lenders have been disputing CP completion in the ongoing matter at the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT), Mumbai.

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The lenders had moved an application at NCLAT requesting the tribunal to remove that line from its order, but their application was dismissed on Tuesday. This can be viewed as a boost for the Jalan Kalrock Consortium (JKC), which has maintained that all the CPs have been met.

Earlier in the day at the hearing in NCLT, Mumbai, the lenders through their legal counsel argued for the second day in a row about how JKC had failed at fulfilling the CPs. One of the CPs states that the JKC has to submit and get approval of its business plan for Jet Airways from the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) and Ministry of Civil Aviation (MoCA). The counsel argued that this CP was not met by JKC.

Advocate Rohan Rajadhyaksha, appearing for the lenders said, “On May 9, 2022, MoCA issued a letter acknowledging the submission of the business plan. There is no letter from them about them approving the business plan. Resolution Applicant says granting of the air operator’s permit (AOP) in effect amounts to the business plan being approved. Granting of AOP nowhere says that the business plan is approved.”

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The counsel also argued that at the meeting of the monitoring committee in August 2021, JKC had committed to starting operations with a fleet of six narrow body Boeing B737 out of the 13 it committed. These were shortlisted for flying in the northern region of India along with international operations over Asia Pacific.

“Now the SRA says that he cannot obtain international traffic rights. This is after the resolution plan is approved. All along he has told us that he will be flying internationally from the very beginning,” Rajadhyaksha added.

JKC, it was claimed, were talking to airports at Abu Dhabi, Heathrow, Dubai, Amsterdam to look for slot availability and certain aircraft manufacturers to help them negotiate for international traffic rights.

“Now he tells us that he cannot do this before he obtains 20 aircrafts,” Rajadhyaksha said. “If the corporate debtor is not in a position to obtain slots nor international traffic rights, if the business plan is not approved, all this will have a disastrous effect on his ability to revive Jet Airways and run it successfully,” Rajadhyaksha argued.