MUMBAI: The Mumbai bench of the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) on Tuesday said that it will hear the insolvency case against Jet Airways (India) Ltd. and next progress report by the insolvency resolution professional (IRP), who have been approved by the court to oversee the insolvency proceedings of the airline, on 8 August.
The tribunal, consisting of judges V.P. Singh and Ravikumar Duraisamy, also asked the court-appointed IRP for Jet Airways, Ashish Chhawchharia of Grant Thornton India, to discuss employee’s salary concerns with the Committee of Creditors (CoC).
Employee associations of Jet Airways had earlier through their lawyers sought the court’s permission to release a month’s salary.
Jet Airways has held back salaries since January to a section of its staff, including pilots, engineers and general managers. Besides, the carrier has deferred the salaries for March to all employees, as it battled financial woes before finally grounding its operations due to an acute fund crunch.
On Tuesday, the two-judge bench of NCLT also said that it will hear the claims Luckystar Private Ltd., which owns Siroya Centre, the former headquarters of Jet Airways, on 8 August.
Luckystar Private Ltd had earlier approached the NCLT for taking possession of Siroya Center from Jet Airways after the lease expired on 7 June.
Jet Airways has not flown since 18 April due to funding woes. A consortium of 26 bankers led by State Bank had approached the NCLT to recover dues of over ₹8,500 crore from Jet Airways. Apart from banks, the airline also owes over ₹10,000 crore to its hundreds of vendors, primarily aircraft lessors and over ₹3,000 crore to its employees who have not been paid since March.
The lenders have been trying to sell the airline as a going concern since the past five months, but failed due to many a reason.
The Mumbai bench of the NCLT admitted Jet Airways on 20 June for bankruptcy proceedings under the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (IBC). The court also approved an insolvency resolution professional (IRP) to oversee the insolvency proceedings.
The tribunal also ordered the IRP to complete the IBC process in three months, even though the law allows six months, saying “the matter is of national importance".
Last week, the Committee of Creditors (CoC) of Jet Airways approved an interim funding of $10 million (about ₹69 crore) for the airline, which will be used for the corporate insolvency resolution process.
The RP, Grant Thornton India’s Ashish Chhawchharia, has set 6 August as the date for issuing a provisional list of prospective resolution applicants, and 11 August as the last date of submission of objections. The final list of prospective resolution applicants will be issued on 14 August, while the final date for submission of resolution plans of these applicants will be 5 September.
