Court notice on airport privatisation

The Delhi High Court today asked the Centre and the Airport Authority of India (AAI) to respond to a petition challenging the government's move to privatise the Delhi and Mumbai airports.

A division bench, which had earlier asked the petitioner, the Airport Authority Officers' Association, to establish maintainability of its petition, directed the Centre and AAI to file their replies by October 5, the next date of hearing.

In their petition, the association has challenged the Airport Authority of India (Amendment) Act, 2003, inserting Section 12A to the main act, claiming it was detrimental to national security.

The association sought quashing of the international tender notices for invitation to register an expression of interest for conducting an international bidding process to restructure and modernise the airports by privatising them.