Will not decide on AirAsia deal before Dec 11: Centre to HC

The Centre today assured the Delhi High Court that no final decision will be taken on the AirAsia deal till December 11, the next date of hearing on the plea filed by BJP leader Subramanian Swamy seeking a stay on it.

Appearing before a bench of Chief Justice N V Ramana and Justice Manmohan, Solicitor General Mohan Parasaran said, "Nothing will happen till then".

The senior law officer was answering to a court's query as to what is the government's stand on Swamy's plea seeking a stay on the deal.

Raising objection to the maintainability of the plea, Parasaran said a PIL cannot be maintained on such issue like AirAsia as the policy does not affect general public.

Referring to the government's affidavit, the bench said no final decision has been taken on the approval of the deal.

However, Swamy argued that the government has made a relaxation in the FDI policy because of the cash strapped in aviation sector.

During the hearing, Swamy informed the bench the Centre is scheduled to take decision on the AirAsia deal on December 11.

After hearing the parties, the bench fixed December 11 for further hearing of the matter.

Swamy in his plea has sought a direction for restraining Centre from taking any decision or granting any other approval contrary to the applicable FDI policy and DGCA guidelines or granting any approval for foreign investment by a foreign airlines in a greenfield airline project.

Swamy had first moved the apex court which had asked him to withdraw the petition and approach the high court for agitating his case.

In April this year, the Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB) gave clearance to the USD 30 million deal between Malaysia-based AirAsia and Tata Sons.