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The Supreme Court on Tuesday asked the government to respond to Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Subramanian Swamy’s petition alleging “reckless allocation of natural resources” in the Jet-Etihad Airways deal. He argued before a bench headed by Chief Justice P Sathasivam, contending sky was a natural resource like spectrum, oil and coal.
The Chief Justice said his bench was going through the petition in detail for more than an hour and asked Swamy whether he had written to the government or the Prime Minister. Swamy said his letter did not evoke any response from the Prime Minister.
The BJP leader said he was not attacking the nature of the deal or even the foreign direct investment (FDI) policy. “It is against squandering of natural resources, against the advice of government bodies.” He said a Parliamentary select committee had criticised it. The Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG) has also called such deals “squandering of the sky space”, while enquiring into the Air India privatisation.
The court issued a notice on an interim application to stop the deal, awaiting the response of the government in four weeks. The notices will go to the finance ministry, commerce ministry, external affairs ministry, Foreign Investment Promotion Board, Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion, Directorate General of Civil Aviation, Jet Airways, and Etihad Airways.
