Grounding of three engines: Delhi High Court refuses urgent listing of Spicejet's plea challenging order

Delhi High Court refuses urgent listing of Spicejet's plea to ground engines, hearing scheduled for August 20.

The Delhi High Court on Friday (August 16, 2024) refused to grant an urgent listing of low-cost airline Spicejet's plea challenging an order to ground three aircraft engines by today and hand over those to the lessors within 15 days.

The plea was mentioned for urgent hearing before a Bench of Acting Chief Justice Manmohan and Justice Manmeet P. S. Arora. The Bench said listing the plea during the day was not possible and it will be heard on August 20.

"It is very difficult to list it today. Several judges are on leave today. Let the learned judges read the papers (case documents). We will have it on Tuesday," the Bench said.

Spicejet has challenged a single judge's August 14 order directing it to ground three engines by Friday and hand them over to their lessors within 15 days.

The judge had directed the airline to offer prior inspection of the engines to the lessors — Team France 01 SAS and Sunbird France 02 SAS — through their authorised representative at the Delhi airport within seven days.

Senior advocate Amit Sibal, representing Spicejet, insisted that the plea be heard in the post-lunch session of the court as there is grave urgency and the grounding of three engines would lead to the grounding of two aircraft.

“This would cause grave inconvenience to passengers as flights would have to be cancelled and tickets are already booked,” the counsel submitted, adding there are 21 aircraft with the airline.