The NCLAT has dismissed the application of Jet Airways lenders seeking clarifications and removal of certain statements in the October 21 order, on technical grounds.
The lenders had sought removal of the sentence which stated that the Jalan Kalrock Consortium (JKC) had met all the conditions precedent (CP).
The court on Tuesday informed the lawyers appearing on behalf of the lenders that it did not have the authority to clarify or review its own order. The bench said that the lenders could, however, appeal against the order, if required.
In its October 21 order, NCLAT directed that the provident fund and gratuity had to be paid to the employees of erstwhile Jet Airways. The said application was filed by Jet’s employee union, JAMEWA, in which the lenders were made party too.
The Order in question had recorded that all conditions precedent (CPs) had been met “to the satisfaction of the monitoring committee”.
The JKC has filed an application in the NCLT seeking airline’s control on the premise that all CPs have been met by them. The JKC has quoted the said order in its application in the NCLT. However, the lenders have been disputing CP completion in the ongoing matter at NCLT.
Hence, the lenders moved a ‘clarification application’ to NCLAT on December 13 requesting the tribunal to expunge that line from its Order, but their application was dismissed today.
Meanwhile, the NCLT heard the lenders’ arguments in the application filed by JKC. The lawyers appearing on behalf of the lenders argued that the air operators certificate cannot be equated to approval of business plan and must be obtained separately, say lenders of Jet Airways.
On international traffic rights, lenders’ lawyers said JKCKC also failed to obtain them as per its resolution plan. They countered that the consortium should not have made this one of the precedents if it intended to restart the operations with only six aircraft, when the law requires the operation of at least 20 aircraft to obtain such clearance.
The bench will hear the said matter on Wednesday.