The Supreme Court on Thursday agreed to hear next week an appeal filed by the Kerala government against the Kerala High Court’s refusal to entertain its petition challenging a proposal of the Airport Authority of India (AAI) to grant the right of operation, management and development of Thiruvananthapuram Airport to Adani Enterprises Limited.
The petition came up before a three-judge Bench led by Chief Justice of India Sharad A. Bobde.
Not maintainable
The High Court had on December 18 last year concluded that the State’s writ petition under Article 226 of the Constitution was not maintainable before it.
The AAI proposal to hand over the airport management to the private company was essentially an implementation of the central policy, the High Court had reasoned.
The High Court said the dispute was between the State of Kerala and the Union government. Only the Supreme Court, and not High Courts, has jurisdiction in such Centre-State disputes. Kerala ought to directly file a suit under Article 131 in the Supreme Court, the High Court had advised.
Challenging this conclusion, the State contended in the Supreme Court that AAI is a necessary party in this dispute. Though it was a government policy, it is the AAI which has to prepare the lease. The lease for turning over the airport to the Adani company would be bad in law without the participation of the AAI.
The State dismissed the idea of filing a direct suit in the Supreme Court under Article 131.
It contended that a suit under Article 131 is permitted only if the dispute is exclusively between the Centre and a State government. The AAI does not qualify to be called a ‘State’ under the Article. Hence, a suit under Article 131 cannot be filed in the Supreme Court because though AAI is a necessary party to the dispute, it does not answer to the definition of a ‘State’. So, the only option was a writ petition under Article 226 of the Constitution, Kerala government argued.
The State has contended that handing over the airport to Adani Enterprises Limited, who has no previous experience in managing airports, is “not in public interest and is violative of the provisions of the Airport Authority of India Act of 1994 as well as the proprietary rights of the State Government as regards the land wherein the Thiruvananthapuram Airport is situated”.
Arbitrary
This proposal ignored the Kerala Chief Minister’s offer to take the project at the rate at par with what was quoted by Adani, the Kerala government submitted. The State said the proposal is an arbitrary exercise of power.
