New Delhi: The Supreme court today
declined to give any interim relief to Paramount Airways whose
three planes out of a functional fleet of four has been
grounded following deregistration by civil aviation sector
regulator DGCA.
A bench comprising Chief Justice K G Balakrishnan and
Justices Deepak Verma and B S Chauhan disallowed the plea of
the South-based airlines against the orders of the Delhi High
Court which had dismissed its plea challenging the directions
by DGCA.
However, the apex court issued a notice to DGCA on a
fresh petition filed by Paramount Airways against the orders
passed by the Directorate General of Civil Aviation yesterday
over de-registration of the planes.
The DGCA had given a hearing to Paramount on the
directions of the High Court.
The apex court also declined to grant any relief to
the Paramount over its plea to restrain UK-based GE Capital
Aviation Service Ltd (GECAS) and Celestial Aviation, from whom
it had leased three Embraer planes, to take the aircraft out
of the country.
"No.. we are not going to pass any order on it," the
court said declining Paramount`s plea.
The bench also declined to accept Paramount`s proposal
that it would pay one million USD by May 15 if it is allowed
to fly for a month.
During the proceedings, the bench tried to settle the
matter amicably and asked Paramount to pay Rs 25 crore in cash
to its UK-based lessors and fly. The bench further said it
would appoint a receiver which would take care of the
collections made by the airline.
However, senior advocate K K Venugopal, appearing for
the air carrier, did not agree with it and requested the court
to allow it to fly the three planes for a month and it would
pay one million USD to lessors from revenue generated by it.
To this, the court said "come with a reasonable
amount. We are concerned about it (Paramount). Everything
cannot come in your favour".
Senior advocate Harish Salve, appearing for the GECAS
and Celestial Aviation, opposed any idea of giving planes
again to Paramount to fly and submitted the airlines is
defaulting its payments since July, 2009.
"Conduct of Paramount is such that as of today no
company in the industry is going to give its planes to this
airlines," he said adding Paramount was a profit-making
company and it should pay its dues first.
"They can even take aircraft of lease from other
firms. If they were a first time defaulter, then we would have
thought about it but they have repeatedly done it," he said.
-PTI
