Kerala High Court division bench on Tuesday declined to issue an interim order staying further proceedings on the Union government's order to lease out Thiruvananthapuram international airport to Adani Enterprises. The Kerala government had moved the high court seeking a stay.
The court considered the application and adjourned the case for detailed hearing on September 15, but refused to impose a stay. The court has directed the government to produce the relevant documents before September 9.
The state government filed the application in the court, after an all-party-meeting in the state demanded withdrawal of the Union Cabinet's decision last week to lease out the airport to Adani Enterprises. In its application, the state government had said unless a stay is granted, it will be put to irreparable injury and hardship.
Last year, the high court had dismissed the petition challenging the decision, terming it as not maintainable under Article 226 of the Constitution. The state government then filed an appeal before the Supreme Court against the high court order.
The apex court set aside the judgement of the high court and the matter was remanded back to it for a decision on merit.
Referring to the top court directive, the state government said, "all further proceedings in relation to grant of lease with regard to operation, management and development of Thiruvananthapuram international airport to Adani Enterprises Ltd, is to be stayed pending disposal of the aforementioned writ petition."
Meanwhile, on Monday, the Kerala Assembly passed a unanimous resolution demanding the withdrawal of the Union Cabinet's decision to lease out the international airport to Adani Enterprises Ltd.
Moving the resolution, Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan said the Centre should re-examine its decision and the operation and management of the airport be handed over to the Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) in which the state government has stake.
The all-party meeting called by the Chief minister on August 20 had decided to move a resolution against the Centre's decision and to demand its withdrawal.
Pinarayi had twice written to the Prime Minister seeking the withdrawal of the decision.
The Centre had decided to lease out airports at Jaipur, Guwahati and Thiruvananthapuram through public-private partnership (PPP) mode.
Adani Enterprises had won the rights to run six airports — Lucknow, Ahmedabad, Jaipur, Mangaluru, Thiruvananthapuram and Guwahati — through the PPP model after a competitive bidding process in February 2019.