BENGALURU: Leasing out airports for better management and functioning is purely a policy decision of the Central Government, ruled the Karnataka High Court on Monday, refusing to interfere with the Union Government’s decision to lease out the Mangaluru International Airport to Adani Enterprises Ltd (AEL). Dismissing a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) filed by the Airports Authority Employees’ Union -- Mangaluru International Airport, a division bench of Acting Chief Justice Satish Chandra Sharma and Justice Sachin Shankar Magadum said the Airports Authority of India (AAI ) has followed a transparent process in leasing out airports and has not privately negotiated the Mangaluru Airport deal.
The petitioner questioned privatisation of the airport, the bidding process and the cabinet decision of July 3, 2019 accepting the AEL bid. The Union had also requested the court to quash the consequential Concession Agreement of February 14, 2020. But the court said that after the tender was issued, the successful bidder was awarded the contract and there was no violation of any statutory provision of law. Citing the judgements of the Supreme Court, the high court held that the policy of the executive is best left to it and a court should not interfere with the policy decision unless the decision is mala fide, arbitrary, irrational or unreasonable.
“As the petitioner -- AAE Union -- has not been able to point out violation of statutory provisions of law and constitutional provisions, the present petition deserves to be dismissed,” the court said. The petitioner had alleged that privatisation of airports is contrary to the statutory provision as contained under Section 12 and 12A of the Airports Authority of India Act. Irregularities took place in the matter, such as criteria for selection of airport, undue urgency on the part of Civil Aviation Ministry/AAI, absence of feasibility study and its report and absence of minimum reserved ‘per passenger fee’ among others.