"The notification is out. The Tribunal (Competition Appellate Tribunal) is already functional. It is already in place. They have been given additional powers of Airports Economic Regulatory Authority Appellate Tribunal (AERAAT)," Additional Solicitor General Rajiv Mehra told Justice Sunil Gaur.
The court then disposed of a petition filed by Federation of Indian Airlines (FIA), an industry body that represents airlines, against the recent tariff decisions and asked it to approach the Competition Appellate Tribunal with its plea on August 30.
As the AERAAT was defunct, the FIA moved the high court against the decision of regulator Airports Economic Regulatory Authority (AERA) by which Delhi International Airport Limited (DIAL) was allowed to have a threefold hike in its aeronautical tariff for the IGI Airport here.
Earlier, the court had asked the Centre to reconstitute within "a week or so" defunct AERAAT for deciding the tariff disputes.
The two-year tenure of the three-member AERAA, which used to hear appeals against tariff decisions of regulator AERA, expired in June.
As AERAAT was not functioning, the appeals of the Delhi International Airport Limited (DIAL) and FIA against the recent tariff decisions were in limbo.