A Division Bench of the Kerala High Court, comprising Justice K. Vinod Chandran and Justice P.R. Ravi, recused itself from hearing petitions filed by the State government and others against the Centre’s decision to approve the grant of lease/concession on the right of operation, management and development of the Thiruvananthapuram International Airport to Adani Enterprises Limited.
The Bench ordered recusal from the case when the petitions came up for hearing. The cases will now come up before another Bench.
Affidavit filed
The government in reply to the Centre’s contentions said in an affidavit that many of the clauses of the Request for Proposal (RFP) were tailor-made to suit private players to the exclusion of the State. In fact, the right of first refusal was offered to the Special Purpose Vehicle with range parameters.
The affidavit also said that as the Chief Minister had offered to enhance the passenger tariff on par with what had been quoted by the Adani Enterprises, the Airport Authority of India should have had a negotiation with the government before finalising the tender.
The government also pointed out that the Assembly had on August 24 unanimously resolved to request the Union government not to hand over the operation and management of the Thiruvananthapuram airport to private players and to hand over the same to the government or or its Special Purpose Vehicle, the reply affidavit said.
