Kerala HC dismisses state govt's plea against lease of Thiruvananthapuram airport

In a massive setback to the state government, the Kerala High Court dismissed a petition filed by the Kerala government against privatisation of the Thiruvananthapuram airport. A division bench of the High Court comprising of Justice C S Dias and Justice K Vinod Chandran dismissed the arguments put forward by the Kerala government and others. Observing that the Centre's decision of leasing out the airport was a policy decision, the High Court further noted that the state government was given a fair chance during the bidding process which they lost to the Adani group. 

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Kerala government approaches HC against leasing out Thiruvananthapuram airport

In August, the Kerala government had moved the High Court challenging the Centre's decision to lease out the Thiruvananthapuram airport to Adani Group and sought a stay on it. Later, the Kerala High Court declined the stay and adjourned the case for a final hearing. This petition was filed after an all-party-meeting led by Kerala CM Pinarayi Vijayan during which all political parties criticised the airport privatisation decision and demanded the Centre withdraw its decision. During the meeting, the parties also agreed that the Kerala government had the rights over the Thiruvananthapuram airport which was ignored by the Centre.

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Centre rents out airports to Adani Group

The Central government gave an approval to lease out three airports of Airports Authority of India (AAI) via Public-Private Partnership (PPP) to the Adani Group for a period of 50 years on August 19. The operation, management and development of the Jaipur, Guwahati and Thiruvananthapuram airports will be managed by the company. The Adani Group won this bid in global bidding held by the Airports Authority of India. 

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(with inputs from agencies)