About a month before the original proposed date of launch, six months after the Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB) gave its clearance, and one day before receiving a no-objection certificate (NOC) from the aviation ministry, AirAsia India, the Tatas and AirAsia Berhad’s chief Tony Fernandes got a rude shock. While the partners probably did not expect the clearances to be quick, they also did not anticipate the Delhi High Court to accept the public interest litigation (PIL) filed by Subramanian Swamy against the FIPB clearance.
On 18 September, the Delhi High Court’s acceptance of the PIL came as a rude shock to the new venture. The court asked the ministries of finance, commerce and civil aviation, the Director General of Civil Aviation and AirAsia to respond. The petition argues that the government in September 2012 allowed foreign airlines to invest in Indian carriers already in operation. And since neither AirAsia, the Tatas nor Telstra (the other partner) is operating an airline in India as of now, the clearance does not stand.
There were murmurs on this count when the proposal was cleared in March, but those were ignored. But then Swamy took the matter to court (he has filed a PIL against the Jet-Etihad deal as well, which is making the affected parties allege that he is acting at a rival’s behest). The PIL didn’t stop the NOC from coming through, but it did cause damage.
Read news in full 04/10/13 Anjuli Bhargava/Business World
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