NCLAT upholds Jet Airways transfer of ownership to Jalan Kalrock

NEW DELHI: Insolvency appellate tribunal NCLAT on Tuesday upheld the resolution plan of grounded carrier Jet Airways and approved the transfer of its ownership to Jalan Kalrock Consortium.

The NCLAT bench has directed the Jet Airways monitoring committee to complete the transfer of ownership within 90 days.

Besides, it has also directed the lenders of Jet Airways to adjust the Rs 150 crore paid by the consortium as performance bank guarantee.

The lenders of Jet Airways and Jalan Kalrock Consortium (JKC), the successful bidder, are in a legal tussle for more than a year over the transfer of the management of the grounded carrier.

Earlier, the lenders had approached the Supreme Court, which had declined to interfere in the matter and had directed the National Company Law Appellate Tribunal (NCLAT) to take a decision on the issue.

The NCLAT directed the managing committee, consisting of lenders led by SBI, to create security on immovable properties as offered by the successful resolution applicant (SRA) JKC within 30 days.

Upon creation of such security, lenders were directed to adjust the performance bank guarantee of Rs 150 crore towards the payment of the same amount from the SRA.

The NCLAT has directed that within 30 days of the creation of security, lenders will issue shares of Jet Airways to SRA and hand over the company.

Within 30 days from the date of such handover, the SRA and lenders will be required to complete all payments to creditors as per the approved resolution plan, the NCLAT said.

Jet Airways can start business and operations, subject to regulatory approvals, after handover to SRA, it said.

Jet Airways in a statement said the "NCLAT has approved the implementation of the resolution plan as originally approved without any deviations and has given directions to lenders for specific and immediate implementation".

Jet Airways, which has not flown since April 2019, had in September last year said that the new proposed promoters -- the Jalan-Kalrock consortium -- had completed an additional infusion of Rs 100 crore in the carrier.

With this infusion, it said, JKC has fulfilled its total financial commitment of Rs 350 crore equity as per the court-approved resolution plan.

The consortium has fulfilled all other commitments to take control of the airline, it added.

The airline had also said it was looking to relaunch operations from 2024.

After grounding in 2019 owing to severe liquidity crisis at that time, the full-service carrier underwent an insolvency resolution process. However, it was having a dispute with the lender.

In 2021, JKC emerged as the successful bidder of Jet Airways.