Subramanian Swamy moves Delhi High Court for suspension of AirAsia licence

NEW DELHI: BJP leader Subramanian Swamy today moved the Delhi High Court seeking "immediate suspension" of flying licence granted to airline AirAsia India alleging that it had obtained it through "fraud".

The application, also seeking contempt proceedings against three officials of AirAsia for allegedly filing false counter affidavit in the court, was mentioned before a bench of Chief Justice G Rohini and Justice Jayant Nath, which is hearing Swamy's plea challenging grant of flying licence to AirAsia India by regulator Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA).

Swamy has contended that one of the officials had made false statement in his counter affidavit filed in court while the other two had acted with the alleged intention of "misleading" the Foreign Investment Promotion Board ( FIPB), Ministry of Civil Aviation (MoCA) and DGCA into grant of approvals, permits and permissions.

He alleged that the officials did not disclose the commercial agreement of April 17, 2014 titled 'Brand License Agreement' in relation to determination of effective control as it clearly establishes that the operations, management and policy decisions are controlled by the foreign airline, AirAsia Berhad, and is not with Indian Nationals.

Apart from seeking immediate suspension of the airline's licence, the application has sought calling of records of DGCA and to examine them to see whether the authorities had granted the AOP after considering the commercial agreement executed AirAsia India.

Malaysia's largest budget-carrier AirAsia had set up the joint venture with the Tata Group and Telestra Tradeplace to launch the regional airline in India.

In his PIL, Swamy has challenged the clearance granted to the airline on the ground that according to the policy, foreign investment is only permitted for an existing airline but AirAsia India was not an existing carrier.