The Supreme Court on Monday dismissed a petition filed by the Kerala government challenging the Airport Authority of India decision to lease out the management of Thiruvananthapuram International Airport to Adani Enterprises Limited, reported Live Law.
A bench of Chief Justice of India UU Lalit and Justice Bela M Trivedi was hearing the plea filed against Kerala High Court’s judgement upholding the airport’s lease to Gautam Adani’s conglomerate.
The Airport Authority of India had granted lease to the Adani Enterprises Limited in October 2020 and the conglomerate took over the airport a year later.
At Monday’s hearing, the judges noted that the High Court had taken into consideration the discussions between the state and central government that any entity state-owned entity having at least 25% equity shares in the airport will have the Right of First Refusal in the range of 10%.
The Right of First Refusal is a contractual right given to a person or entity to enter into a business transaction before others.
According to the arrangement, state-owned Kerala State Industrial Development Corporation had entered the bid, the Supreme Court noted. However, the corporation placed a bid of Rs 168 per passenger while Adani Enterprises Limited’s bid was Rs 135 per passenger.
Since the bid of the state-owned body was less by 20% of Adani’s bid, it was rejected. The Supreme Court held that the High Court had rightly rejected the Kerala government’s appeal.
The Supreme Court also said that since the Adani-led company has been managing the operations of the airport since October 2021, there was no reason to interfere, reported Bar and Bench.
However, the court clarified that the question regarding ownership of land on which the airport is situated would remain open.
In its petition, the Kerala government had argued that handover of the airport to Adani, who has “no previous experience in managing airports”, was in violation of the the provisions of the Airports Authority of India Act, 1994 as well as the proprietary rights of the state.
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