The Hindu : New Delhi News : Closure of HAL Airport: SC declines to interfere with HC interim order

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Tuesday, May 06, 2008
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Closure of HAL Airport: SC declines to interfere with HC interim order

J. Venkatesan

SLP filed by Bangalore City Connect Foundation disposed of

Centre told to hold talks with the parties concerned
High Court had rejected plea not to close HAL Airport

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Monday declined to interfere with the interim directions issued by the Karnataka High Court asking the Centre to hold negotiations on closure of the HAL Airport in Bangalore for commercial civil aviation operations.

A Bench of Chief Justice K.G. Balakrishnan and Justice M.K. Sharma disposed of a special leave petition filed by Bangalore City Connect Foundation saying “the Karnataka High Court had only passed an interim order and since the main writ petition is still pending we are not inclined to interfere with that order.” The Bench asked the Centre to carry out the directions contained in the interim directions of the High Court, viz to hold negotiations with the parties, in accordance with law.

The Bench asked the authorities to inform the High Court about the result of the negotiations and said the High Court would endeavour to dispose of the petition at an early date.

The SLP was against an interim order of the Karnataka High Court rejecting the petitioner’s plea for interim relief, viz. not to close the existing HAL Airport.

Appearing for the petitioner, senior counsel Harish Salve submitted that the issue was of great importance as the parliamentary committee had come down heavily on the government for its move to close the HAL Airport. He said the airport was handling traffic of 9.9 million passengers and its closure would cause hardship to air travellers. He said the Centre must hold negotiations not bound by the agreement entered into with the parties, viz. the existing airport would be closed once the new airport commenced commercial operations.

Additional Solicitor-General Gopal Subramaniam assured the court that negotiations would be held in accordance with law. Senior counsel K.K. Venugopal, appearing for Bangalore International Airport Ltd. said the “concession agreement” was put on the website but no objections were received. The BIAL had entered into contracts with various agencies and any order or direction to continue the HAL airport at this stage would pose problems to all the parties, he said.

The petitioner challenged the proposed closure of HAL Airport once the Bangalore International airport at Devanahalli was opened and became operational by this month-end. It said the new airport was being established at Devanahalli, 40 km away from the city.

While its distance for international passengers might not present a major problem, it would cause inconvenience to domestic passengers.

The petitioner sought quashing of the impugned order dated April 16 and an interim direction that the HAL Airport should continue to be operational.

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