A Bench of the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) comprising Judicial Member Mahendra Khandelwal and Technical Member Dr Sanjeev Ranjan granted the liquidation petition filed by the airline’s Committee of Creditors (CoC).
Go First had filed a voluntary application under Section 10 of IBC on May 2, 2023 seeking admission to Corporate Insolvency Resolution Process (CIRP). NCLT admitted the application on May 10 last year and appointed a Resolution Professional (RP) to manage the airline.
The lessors moved NCLAT against the order stating that their assets were being held under moratorium without reason as the leases were terminated before the insolvency process.
NCLAT on 22 May 2023 had upheld the NCLT order and directed the lessors to seek clarification on moratorium from NCLT.
The lessors then approached Delhi High Court and asked the DGCA to deregister their aircraft. DGCA refused initially citing moratorium. But on 4 October 2023 Ministry of Corporate Affairs clarified that Section 14(1) of IBC would not apply to transactions involving aircraft, engines, airframes or helicopters.
DGCA then filed an affidavit in the Delhi High Court stating that the exemption would apply to pending cases but would not take any action on Go First’s deregistration as the cases were sub judice.
On April 26, 2024 the Delhi High Court directed DGCA to deregister Go First’s fleet. DGCA completed the deregistration by early May 2024. The lessors were made responsible for maintenance and export of the deregistered aircraft as per Rule 32A of Aircraft Rules.
Since there were no revival options or any operational aircraft, the CoC made the decision to liquidate the airline by September 2024 and also filed the application for liquidation. There was an argument in October 2024 regarding the resolution professional of the airline Shailendra Ajmera being designated as the liquidator. So the CoC further appointed Dinkar Venkatasubramanian as a new liquidator.
