HC asks Goyal to deposit £1.8 bn to travel abroad

Wednesday 17th July 2019 05:43 EDT
 
 

The Delhi high court refused to allow the promoter of now grounded Jet Airways, Naresh Goyal, to travel overseas. Justice Suresh Kait said no interim relief can be granted to Goyal at this stage and added that he may deposit £1.8 billion, the amount Jet owes to its lenders if he wants to travel to a foreign country now. The court was hearing Goyal's plea challenging the look out circular (LOC) issued against him on the ground that as on May 25, when he was de-boarded from a flight and restrained him to travel overseas. Justice Suresh Kait turned down Goyal’s plea that he needed to travel to Dubai to arrange funds for the revival of the airline saying the money he was seeking to get could be transferred through RTGS from abroad. “If you are ready to give £1.8 billion bank guarantee, you can go (abroad).”

Goyal’s counsel and senior advocate Maninder Singh contended the LOC was not warranted as the promoter of Jet was neither an accused in a case nor had he been named in any FIR or complaint made by the ED and that an LOC can only be issued in accordance with law made by legislature as it concerned individual’s right to travel abroad. The senior advocate described his client as a law-abiding citizen. Goyal also emphasised that he had been a non-resident Indian citizen since 1991, and this required he stayed abroad at least for 183 days a year for income-tax benefits and to maintain his residency visa in the UK and UAE.

The plea was opposed by Additional Solicitor General Maninder Acharya and central government standing counsel Ajay Digpaul, saying it is a serious fraud of £1.8 billion and the investigation was going on by the SFIO. The government counsel said Goyal must join the investigation and sought time to file response to his petition.

While Justice Kait agreed to issue a notice to the Centre in the light of points raised by the senior advocate, he refused to grant interim relief to Goyal while posting the matter on 23 August for further hearing. The cash-strapped Jet Airways, which stopped all operations on April 17 due to financial distress, is being probed by multiple agencies, including the corporate affairs ministry and I-T department for alleged irregularities. The LOC was issued following the probe by the ministry which found large-scale irregularities at the airline.


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