A Mumbai bench of the NCLT has appointed Satish Kumar Gupta as the liquidator of Jet Airways following a Supreme Court order that set aside a NCLAT direction allowing the sale of the airline. The liquidation follows a long five and a half year process which could not lead to any successful resolution for the full service carrier.
“..keeping in mind the fact that almost five years have elapsed since the Resolution Plan was duly approved by the NCLAT and there being no progress worth the name, we are left with no other option but to invoke our jurisdiction under Article 142 of the constitution and direct that the Corporate Debtor be taken in liquidation.
The NCLT, Mumbai shall now take appropriate steps for appointment of liquidator and all other necessary formalities for commencement of liquidation of the corporate debtor,” a two judge bench of Prabhat Kumar and Vrendrasingh Bisht said.
The NCLT order came following a direction by the Supreme Court setting aside the National Company Law Appellate Tribunal’s (NCLAT) approval of the airline’s takeover by a consortium comprising UK’s Kalrock Capital and UAE-based entrepreneur Murari Lal Jalan.
The Supreme Court had said the consortium had failed to fulfill the conditions necessary to revive Jet Airways, making liquidation the only viable option. Lenders, led by the State Bank of India, had argued that JKC’s inability to make the required investments left no possibility for the airline’s revival.
The NCLT ruling is the end of the road for Jet Airways after five and a half years of trying to resolve the airline’s INR 7800 crore debt. It was admitted to insolvency in June 2019.
