FIA moves SC seeking stay on clearances given to AirAsia India

The Federation of Indian Airlines (FIA) today moved the Supreme Court seeking stay on the operational clearance granted to AirAsia India or directions for expeditious hearing of the matter pending before the Delhi High Court.
A bench of Justices A R Dave, R K Agrawal and A M Khanwilkar agreed to hear the plea on the reopening of the court after the Diwali break.
Senior advocate Dushyant Dave, appearing for FIA, said the matter is to be listed before a special bench which has earlier directed the Delhi High Court in 2014 to expeditiously decide on it.
"The Delhi High Court has granted 17 adjournments in the matter. Therefore some direction be passed for either staying the clearance granted to AirAsia (India) or some direction be passed for expeditious hearing of the matter by the High Court," Dave said.

He suggested that the matter be listed for November 7, as the matter was coming up for hearing before the Delhi High Court on November 11.
The bench agreed to the contention and directed listing of the matter.

AirAsia Berhad, a public listed Malaysian company which operates AirAsia through its wholly-owned investment vehicle Air Asia Investment Ltd, had in February 2014 entered into an agreement with Tata Sons Ltd and Telestra Tradeplace Pvt Ltd to set up AirAsia India under a joint venture company for passenger airline business in India.
The FIA has opposed the go-ahead given to the airline to begin its flight operations in India.

BJP leader Subramanian Swamy has also challenged the clearances granted to the airline alleging that either the responses filed by the authorities before the court are "false and misleading" or the Director General Civil Aviation (DGCA) "has acted illegally and in utter disregard of law".
The BJP leader had alleged that the USD 30 million joint
venture between Tata Sons and Malaysia based AirAsia Berhad, had to show before the FIPB that the airline would be essentially controlled by Indians, but that has not been done.
Swamy, in his PIL in the high court, has sought various reliefs including setting aside of all "approvals/permissions" granted to the Tata-AirAsia joint venture.

In its plea before the High Court, the FIA has sought quashing of the approval granted by the Ministry of Civil Aviation to the airline.
FIA has moved the high court after the DGCA on February 21, 2014 had granted a permit to AirAsia India to commence its scheduled air operations.
In its petition, the Federation had sought that AirAsia India be "restrained from commencing business as an airline operator in India".