Go First Insolvency: Lessors Win Permission To Inspect, Maintain Aircraft

The Delhi High Court gave a ruling in favour of Go First's lessors, allowing them to inspect their aircraft at least twice a month.

A single-judge bench observed on Wednesday that the planes were highly valuable assets that needed preservation and, hence, allowed the lessors to do the maintenance work on 30 aircraft.

Justice Tara Vitasta Ganju also asked the Directorate General of Civil Aviation and the airport authorities to allow the lessors to access their aircraft. The court asked Go First's employees and resolution professionals not to carry out any kind of work, such as taking out any important part of the aircraft, without the permission of the lessors.

The high court reserved its order on June 1 in the dispute between Go First's lessors and the DGCA. The lessors had sought directions from the DGCA to deregister the planes leased to the grounded airline.

In the previous hearing, the DGCA had submitted that it did not reject any of the applications made by the lessors to deregister the planes. The applications were only put on hold because of the moratorium declared by the National Company Law Tribunal.

The DGCA had argued that provisions of the Cape Town Convention, which governs the relationship between lessors and the airline and to which India is a signatory, cannot force the regulator to deregister the planes as local laws prevail over international treaties.

On May 22, the National Company Law Appellate Tribunal upheld the decision of the NCLT to admit Go First into insolvency. The NCLAT had also given Go First's lessors the opportunity to move to the NCLT with any relevant applications.

However, a few lessors, including Accipiter Holdings, Pembroke Aircraft, SFV Aircraft Holdings, ACG Aircraft Leasing, EOS Aviation 12, SMBC Aviation Capital, and DAE SY 22 13 Ireland, approached the high court, seeking directions to the DGCA to deregister their planes leased to Go First.