The Supreme Court on Friday asked the Kerala High Court to decide the plea of Kerala government against the decision of the Airport Authority of India (AAI) to hand over the operation and management of Thiruvananthapuram International Airport to Adani Enterprises Ltd.
A bench of Chief Justice SA Bobde remanded back the case to Kerala High Court and asked it to decide the case.
The Kerala High Court in December last year had rejected the Kerala government's petition against the decision.
The High Court had said that the case comes under the ambit of Article 131 of the Constitution. Since it is a dispute against a functionary of the central government, the top court can hear it and not the High Court.
The Kerala government had termed the decision of the AAI as "arbitrary" to prefer a private party and ignoring the offer of the Kerala government to operate and manage the airport at the same commercial rates as quoted by Adani Enterprises.
The government also contended that it has experience in handling the management of airports and Adani Enterprises has no previous experience in handling airports and the AAI's decision will not advance the public interest.