The National Company Law Appellate Tribunal (NCLAT) refused to grant any interim relief to State Bank of India against the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) order on the transfer of ownership of Jet Airways to the Jalan Kalrock Consortium. The tribunal, however, added that it will consider SBI’s plea after the conclusion of the arguments.

NCLAT allowed SBI to file reply-affidavits within two weeks as the next hearing will be done on April 11, 2023. The tribunal today passed its order on the case.

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Ashok Bhushan, chairperson, NCLAT said, “The steps regarding the implementation of the plan has to be taken by the SRA (successful resolution applicant) which need to be overseen and cooperated by the Monitoring Committee.”

Senior counsels appearing for the consortium of Murari Lal Jalan and Florian Fritsch (Jalan Kalrock Consortium) submitted that the lenders who are public authorities, instead of cooperating with the SRA to implement the plan, are creating hurdles in implementation of the resolution plan which has been approved by the Supreme Court.

Abhishek Manu Singhvi, senior counsel who appeared for SBI and others submitted that the NCLAT may pass an interim order staying the impugned order passed by the adjudicating authority pending consideration of this appeal or at least an order of status quo be passed.

JKC’s counsel argued that the Air Operator Certificate (AOC) granted by the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) has a limited duration and unless all necessary steps are permitted by the lenders, commercial operation cannot commence, putting the SRA and entire resolution process in jeopardy.

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JKC is intending to recommence the operation with six aircraft, the consortium submitted. The AOC was granted to the airline in May last year and its first flight was to happen before October of the same year.

About 18 months after being declared the winner in the insolvency resolution process of Jet Airways, JKC was allowed to take charge of the airline after the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) agreed that all the conditions have been met by its new promoters. NCLT granted the consortium 180 days from effective date November 16, 2022 to pay dues to its creditors.

Lenders were reluctant to hand over Jet Airways’ management to JKC and had thus approached NCLAT for relief.