Before the High Court on October 16, JKC’s lawyer Senior Advocate Gopal Sankaranarayanan submitted that the NCLAT has given a detailed ruling on all the issues and the lenders have not raised any substantial question of law in the appeal.
“The NCLAT judgment bifurcates itself into issues. They spend 35 pages interpreting the Supreme Court judgment of January 2024. The only issue before NCLAT was whether the conditions precedent (CP) had been met. No substantial question of law has been presented to this court. Many prejudices have been created (against JKC),he said.
He further submitted that the lenders were in a tough spot due to SBI’s decision to extend thousands of crores in loans to the former management of Jet Airways.
“I’m not the bad guy, I’m trying to get the company back on the air.”
Sankaranarayanan argued that the airline’s airport charges have piled up due to the lenders’ decision to extend the lawsuit.
In response to these arguments, Additional Advocate General N Venkataraman argued that JKC has no intention of implementing the resolution plan.
“The Creditors’ Committee, which has over 30 banks, will have to bear the airport charges of ₹ 1,100 crore, according to their claim. Neither the CoC nor the employees get anything. The resolution plan becomes unworkable.”
Venkataraman urged the apex court to use its inherent powers under Article 142 of the Constitution to liquidate the company to avoid another round of litigation.
The ASG also clarified that the government’s intention was not to bring down the airline.
“Whenever this issue is heard, the media news says that the government is taking down one or the other airline. We don’t do this. We have no choice in this case.” he said.
Venkataraman reiterated that the lenders are spending more money in the case of Jet Airways instead of getting it back. According to the ASG, the lenders spend over ₹20 crore per month and have spent over ₹300 crore so far.
With Go First’s bankruptcy petition is expected to be heard on November 8 The coming week is likely to be important for the Indian aviation sector as a whole.