Jet-Etihad Airways deal will be quashed if there are irregularities: SC

The Supreme Court on Friday made it clear that it will quash the Jet-Etihad Airways deal if there are any irregularities in it.

It also issued notices to the Centre and the Income Tax Department on a plea seeking direction to the government to place the transcript of tapped telephonic conversation of former corporate lobbyist Niira Radia in which she allegedly had talked about the civil aviation sector.

The court passed the order on BJP leader Subramanian Swamy's plea seeking its direction to quash the deal on the ground that it was against public interest as there has been squandering of natural resources.

Solicitor General Mohan Parasaran sought a further four weeks' time to file the response and also raised the plea of maintainability by saying that earlier, a similar petition, questioning the Air Asia deal, was not entertained by the apex court.

Swamy was asked to move the Delhi High Court on the matter.

The apex court bench, however, assured Swamy that his plea will be heard and the deal would be set aside if it is convinced that irregularities were there.