Exploring settlement with logistics company Delhivery: Go First tells NCLT

Go First on Monday informed the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) Delhi that it was exploring a settlement with logistics company Delhivery.

The matter will now be heard in the third week of August.

Delhivery, in its petition, said that the insolvent airline received over Rs 1.58 crore from it for providing domestic cargo consignment services but the airline never acted on it. The company said the money was paid in accordance with the 2020 agreement between both companies. The agreement was last renewed on August 4, 2022, and extended up to February 16, 2023.

Delhivery and Go First are presently operating in the period of a further extension. However, the same is yet to be executed in writing, the plea said.

The plea filed by Delhivery is of Section 65 of the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (IBC), 2016. The Section deals with penalties for fraudulent or malicious initiation of insolvency proceedings. This means that any NCLT may impose the penalty on an applicant that fraudulently or with a malicious intent other than for the resolution of insolvency applies for insolvency.

The logistics company said Go First received Rs 57 lakh on May 2, the very day it filed for insolvency, despite being aware that it may not be able to provide its services shortly.

“The sole intent of the corporate debtor (Go First) is to hijack the process of insolvency to the detriment of bona fide applicant (Delhivery) and is an abuse of the process of law,” Delhivery’s plea stated.

NCLT Delhi admitted the plea for voluntary insolvency of Go First on May 10. This put the airline under a moratorium period.

A moratorium, under Section 14(1) of IBC, is the suspension of all or certain legal remedies against a debtor (Go First). This means that lessors of Go First will not be able to take possession of the aircraft.

The National Company Law Appellate Tribunal on May 22 then upheld the NCLT order and told the lessors to go back to NCLT for further relief.

There is also a case of lessors of the airline pending in the Delhi High Court seeking to release the aircraft in possession of Go First.

Go First stopped flying on May 3 this year.