The Mumbai Bench of the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) on Thursday admitted State Bank of India’s (SBI) insolvency plea against Jet Airways and directed the interim resolution professional (IRP) to try and resolve the matter within three months.

The tribunal has also appointed Ashish Chhauchharia of Grant Thornton as the resolution professional for the crippled airline that stopped operations on April 17.

The tribunal comprising VP Singh and Ravikumar Duraisamy directed the RP to try and finish the resolution process in three months even though the law allows six months, saying "the matter is of national importance."

In its plea, SBI has made a claim of Rs 967 crore and said it had given Rs 505 crore in working capital loans, and an overdraft facility of Rs 462 crore to the company.

However, the tribunal rejected the plea by the Netherlands based vendors for filing an intervention application, saying the Dutch district court had no

jurisdiction to order bankruptcy of Jet Airways.

The representatives of two Dutch two logistics vendors wanted the tribunal's nod to make an intervention petition.

It can be noted that two logistics vendors of Jet in the Netherlands had confiscated a passenger jet at the Amsterdam airport late March seeking dues and a local had in May ordered bankruptcy process against the grounded airline and had appointed Rocco Mulder as the administrator for the bankruptcy proceedings.

The tribunal also rejected the bankruptcy pleas filed by two operational creditors of Jet--Shaman Wheels and Gaggar Enterprises. These companies claim Rs 8.74 crore, and Rs 53 lakh respectively from the airline, and were the first to take the airline for bankruptcy on June 10.

"Those petitions are rejected as the plea under Section 7 of the IBC has been admitted today. However, the petitioners are free to approach the RP.

Jet Airways owes over Rs 3,000 crore to its 23,000 employees who have not been paid since March and some of them like engineers and pilots were getting part salaries since last December. The company also owes over Rs 10,000 crore to aircraft vendors/lessors.

The airline started over 25 years ago, stopped flying on April 17 after it ran out of cash and unpaid lessors took away most of its 100-odd operational airplanes.

Apart from its domestic operations, Jet Airways was the largest international operator in India with a market share of almost 14 percent, followed by Air India, before it shut down for lack of funds and sustained losses.

Share price of Jet Airways closed at Rs 64 per share, up 93.35 percent on the BSE, after touching its intra-day high of Rs 77.35 per share. The airline snapped its 10-day losing streak and doubled its stock priced in a single session.

(With inputs from PTI)

First Published:Jun 20, 2019 7:06 PM IST