Jet gets HC okay for plane lease to Turkish Air

The Bombay High Court on Tuesday allowed Jet Airways to lease out one Boeing aircraft to Turkish Airlines, in addition to three already leased. The court granted permission to Jet to give the aircraft on a dry lease for 25 months.

Earlier, the high court had barred the airlines from creating third party rights in its moveable assets, including 40 aircraft, until its dispute with Sahara India Commercial Corporation Ltd was settled. Jet had purchased Sahara Airlines last year.

Last month too Jet had moved the court seeking permission to send three Boeing-777 aircraft to Turkish Airlines on a dry lease.

Sahara India had in March filed a petition claiming that the Naresh Goyal-owned airline had defaulted on the instalment amount due as payment for acquisition of Sahara Airlines, now JetLite, hence it was liable to pay the original deal amount of Rs2,000-crore and not re-negotiated amount of Rs1,450 crore.

The high court, at the last hearing, had asked both the parties to try and settle the matter out of court. The court is expected to give ruling on the Sahara's petition on 12 June. (Also see: Sahara takes Jet to court over tax dues)