SC Closes Curative Plea of Centre, AAI; GMR To Run, Upgrade Nagpur Airport

The Supreme Court permitted the GMR Group to upgrade and operate Nagpur’s Babasaheb Ambedkar International Airport closing a curative petition from the Centre and the Airports Authority of India (AAI). The Centre and AAI sought a review of the Supreme Court's 2022 ruling that granted GMR Group management and operational rights for the airport.

New Delhi:The Supreme Court on Friday cleared the decks for private firm GMR Group to upgrade and operate Nagpur’s Babasaheb Ambedkar International Airport, as it closed a curative petition filed by the Centre and the Airports Authority of India (AAI). The Centre and the AAI had sought a reconsideration of the apex court’s 2022 judgment, which allowed the GMR Group to manage and operate Nagpur’s Babasaheb Ambedkar International Airport.

The curative plea is the last legal recourse available to a litigant. It was devised by the apex court in a 2002 judgment in the Rupa Ashok Hurra case. A curative is filed after the dismissal of the main case and the review petition. Solicitor General Tushar Mehta acting in his capacity as an officer of the court informed a four-judge bench led by Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud that there were no valid grounds to pursue the petition.

The bench, also comprising justices Sanjiv Khanna, BR Gavai and JK Maheshwari, closed the proceedings on the curative plea against its verdict after taking note of the opinion of Mehta that the curative petition, by the Centre and the AAI, did not fall under one of legal parameters prescribed for entertaining such pleas.

Mehta said he found no basis under the curative jurisdiction to challenge the ruling. “There was a view previously that the ground of bias could be pressed, but I am clear that such a ground can never be pressed against an order of this court,” clarified Mehta, adding that the curative plea may not fall under the 2002 judgment. The special bench had taken up the curative plea in an open court for hearing.

Mehta added that they cannot argue that ground of bias and analogous ground that the government was not heard. "These proceedings cannot be made into an intra-court appeal. I must own my decision... I have not even consulted the Centre,” said Mehta.

However, Mehta contended that one aspect, in which the judgment said the Centre and the AAI were not the necessary parties to the litigation, may be reconsidered because of negative consequences in similar matters. After hearing Mehta, the bench said the curative plea was disposed of as "not pressed'.

Earlier, the apex court had sought the "dispassionate views" of Mehta, as an officer of the court and not as a lawyer of the Centre and the AAI in the case.

In May 2022, the apex court upheld the Bombay High Court order which quashed a March 2020 communication issued by a joint venture firm cancelling a contract awarded to GMR Airports for the upgradation and operation of the airport. The Centre and the AAI have filed the curative plea against the 2022 order of the top court.