Jalan Kalrock Consortium case: SC upholds NCLAT ruling on sale of Jet Airways' three aircraft

economictimes.indiatimes.com:

Supreme Court on Thursday dismissed an appeal by the Jalan Kalrock Consortium (JKC), the successful bidder for takeover of grounded Jet Airways (India), seeking to halt sale of the airline's three aircraft to a Malta-based aviation company.

A Bench led by Justice Abhay S Oka upheld the National Company Law Appellate Tribunal's December order that allowed the sale of the aircraft to Ace Aviation VII. The apex court also observed that the sale of aircraft to the aviation company would in fact help the consortium to revive the embattled airline.

JKC had challenged the jurisdiction of the NCLT or the appellate tribunal to direct specific performance of the Letter of Intent, saying the LoI does not have a binding contractual value. It further argued that the NCLAT had failed to consider that it was being «prejudiced for the fault of a third party that has no locus to submit an application before the NCLT essentially seeking specific performance against the monitoring committee of the corporate debtor, having no privity to the resolution plan or its implementation.»

The consortium also said that the Monitoring Committee's (MC) role was envisaged to be «purely supervisory» and any business decisions including the sale of assets as per the resolution plan, were primarily its responsibility.