New Delhi: Delhi High Court has reserved the order on the plea filed by BJP Rajya Sabha member Subramanian Swamy seeking a quashing sale of Air India to Tata Sons.

Recently Tata Sons has won the bid of Air India. Swamy has challenged the disinvestment process.

Chief Justice D.N. Patel and Justice Jyoti Singh headed bench will pass an order on January 6, the bench has directed both parties to file their written arguments by Wednesday.

Mr. Swamy has seeking direction to the Union government to quash the disinvestment process of Air India and to revoke any permission given for the same.

In the petition, Subramanian Swamy seeks detailed enquiry into the role of respondents in the disinvestment process.

In October 2021, Centre has accepted the highest bid made by Tata Sons for  100 percent equity shares of Air India and Air India Express along with half the stake in its ground handling company named AISATS to Tata sons.

The government has entered an agreement with Tata Sona for 18,000 crores for the sale of Air India. Tatas are expected to pay Rs. 2700 crore cash and takeover Rs. 13,500 crore of the carrier’s debt.

The petitioner Swamy contended that the bidding process was unconstitutional, mala fide and corrupt and rigged in favour of the Tatas.

He also alleged that the other bidder was a consortium led by the SpiceJet owner. He pointed out that there was an insolvency process ongoing in Madras High Court which passed orders against SpiceJet and therefore it was not entitled to bid.

"This means there was only one bidder and the bid cannot take place. After the bidding process, a story appeared in the press that the second bidder said he was happy that he participated because if he had not, the bidding process could not have gone forward," Mr. Swamy contended.

Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, representing the Central government argued before the court disinvestment was a policy decision taken by the government in view of the fact that the national carrier was running into losses. He further submitted that there was nothing surreptitious about the deal and the issue cannot be gone into by the Court under Article 226.

Senior Counsel Harish Salve, representing Tata, argued that the successful bidder is a 100 percent Indian company and the allegations of corruption are without any basis, the Bar and Bench reported.

"From 2017, Government has been facing difficulties to sell the airline. There is nothing in this petition. No particulars are given. They can just repeat that there is corruption but no details are given," Mr. Salve argued.