Delhi HC rejects Subramanian Swamy's plea to scrap Air India sale

New Delhi: In a relief to the Centre, the Delhi High Court on Thursday dismissed senior BJP leader Subramanian Swamy's plea challenging disinvestment in Air India.

"The Delhi HC dismisses my WP (writ petition) on Air India. Reasoned order is being uploaded. After reading that we shall decide on going to SC (Supreme Court)," Swamy tweeted.

Swamy has been claiming that the tendering process to sell Air India along with its low-cost arm Air India Express and ground-handling joint venture AISATS was rigged in favour of Tatas.

He has been opposed to the idea of privatising the national carrier maintaining that the airline's functioning could have been improved instead of the government selling it.

The government had announced on October 8 to sell Air India and its subsidiary Air India Express and also AISATS to Tatas for Rs 18,000 crore.

As per the deal, Tatas will pay Rs 2,700 crore cash to the government and retain Rs 15,300 crore of the airline's debt to acquire Air India.

The government has already signed the share purchase agreement (SPA) with Tatas and is in the process of transferring the ownership to the business conglomerate. (UNI)