The Kerala Government’s appeal against the Airport Authority of India’s (AAI) decision to lease the Thiruvananthapuram International Airport to Adani Enterprises Limited was denied by the Supreme Court on Monday (AEL).
The special leave plea challenging the Kerala High Court ruling upholding the lease in October 2020 was dismissed by a bench made up of Chief Justice of India U U Lalit and Justice Bela M Trivedi. A similar petition submitted by certain airport employees who are members of the employees union was also denied by the top court.
The bench noted that when the Central government announced the tender to privatise the airport in the state capital, a state-owned organisation, the Kerala State Industrial Development Corporation (KSIDC), had competed in the bid. Following the talks between the state and the Central government, the PSU joined the bid.
After observing that KSIDC’s bid (a per-passenger price of Rs 135) was less than what AEL had quoted, the High Court had rejected the State’s plea.
For 50 years, the airport was leased out. In 2019, the government privatised five more airports: Lucknow, Ahmedabad, Mangalore, Jaipur, and Guwahati. The winning bidder was chosen using the per-passenger fee method.
The court clarified that it has left open the matter of the ownership of the land raised by the State Government. The AAI maintained that ownership vests with it, whereas the State claimed that the land is its.
Kerala was represented by Senior Attorney Chander Uday Singh, and the AAI was represented by Additional Solicitor General K M Nataraj.
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