FIA moves Supreme Court seeking stay on operational clearances granted to AirAsia India

New Delhi: The Federation of Indian Airlines (FIA) on Thursday 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".

Swamy had alleged before the High Court that the licence had been obtained by making false representation to the court.