India's Supreme Court has ordered the liquidation of Jet Airways (JAI, Mumbai International) after finding that its prospective buyer, the Jalan Kalrock Consortium (JKC), had failed to abide by the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) approved resolution plan and that liquidation was the only viable alternative.
The decision, handed down on November 7, 2024, draws a line under the long-running saga of broken promises and failed restart plans. Jet Airways collapsed in 2019 after it could not source the capital needed to maintain day-to-day operations.
In 2021, the National Company Law Tribunal cleared JKC to buy the airline after a deal was nutted out with lending banks and other creditors. The deal would see JKC pay the banks INR3.5 billion rupees (USD41.5 million) and employees INR2.26 billion (USD26.7 million). The Supreme Court noted that JKC had failed to pay these amounts per the agreed schedule.
The Supreme Court's ruling was a response to an appeal by lending banks, led by the State Bank of India, against a National Company Appellate Law Tribunal decision that tinkered with the terms of the original resolution plan. The court said the NCLAT had no right to do that. The judges said that given the time taken to get to this point, they had no choice but to order Jet Airways' liquidation.
The court ordered the NCLT, India's specialist bankruptcy court, to appoint a liquidator and that the INR2 billion (USD23.7 million) already paid by JKC be forfeited.
