The Supreme Court of India will hear an appeal against a National Company Law Appellate Tribunal (NCLAT) decision to allow ownership of Jet Airways (JAI, Mumbai International) to transfer to the Jalan Kalrock Consortium (JKC).
Indian court records show that the State Bank of India, JC Flowers Asset Reconstruction Private Limited, and the Punjab National Bank filed the appeal on April 15, naming the consortium of Murari Lal Jalan and Florian Fritsch, along with former Jet Airways resolution professional Ashish Chhawchharia, as respondents. The appellants filed a stay application on April 18 and the matter was first mentioned in court on April 22.
The appellants are challenging a March 12 NCLAT order to transfer the ownership of the insolvent airline to JKC. Counsel for the appellants told the court this week that the consortium had failed to pay the amounts agreed for the ownership transfer to proceed and ignored earlier Supreme Court orders on the matter. Because of that, it was "shocking and unacceptable" that the NCLAT had made its ruling.
JKC and the Jet Airways creditors committee, led by the State Bank of India, have been in dispute since the National Company Law Tribunal approved a restructuring plan in June 2021. The plan would see the consortium take control of the airline in exchange for a series of payments to creditors. However, since then, both sides have alleged non-compliance with the terms of the restructuring plan and initiated a rolling series of legal challenges. Jet Airways went out of business in 2019 owing assorted creditors almost INR80 billion rupees (USD960 million).
The matter returns to the Supreme Court on April 26.
