National Company Law Appellate Tribunal (NCLAT) on Friday decided to pitch for early revival of grounded airline Jet Airways. To facilitate the same, the appellate tribunal has decided to give more time to to the winning bidder Jalan Kalrock Consortium to fulfill their payment obligations.
NCLAT has also directed lenders not to encash the performance bank guarantee of ₹175 crore furnished by the consortium.
NCLAT extended the timeline for payment obligation by excluding the time period between 16 November 2022 and 3 March 2023 — the time period when it was hearing the petition filed by lenders.
The appellate tribunal reiterated that efforts by the monitoring committee of lenders and the consortium should be coordinated for the revival of Jet Airways “so as to start its operations at an early date, which is in the interest of all stakeholders”.
NCLAT has directed listing of the matter on July 12 for hearing.
In its 16-page strongly-worded order, the National Company Law Appellate Tribunal (NCLAT) emphasised that the parties should work on early revival of the carrier.
Currently, the affairs of the grounded airline is being managed by the Monitoring Committee (MC) of lenders.
NCLAT noted that directions have been issued to both MC and the consortium to implement the resolution plan plan.
Further, it said there is no doubt that the performance bank guarantee can be invoked by the MC lenders but the said invocation can only take place when the consortium has failed to implement the plan.
“We direct that MC lenders shall not invoke the performance bank guarantee in the facts of the present case as on date, and for invocation, if any, MC Lenders may take leave of the adjudicating authority,” NCLAT bench, comprising Charirman Justice Ashok Bhushan and Member (Technical) Barun Mitra, said.
Further, it said the resolution plan has been approved with the intent and purpose to revive Jet Airways.
“We again reiterate that efforts by MC lenders and SRA should be coordinated for revival of the corporate debtor (Jet Airways), so as to start its operations at an early date, which is in the interest of all stakeholders as well as in the interest of corporate debtor,” it said.