"AAI ( Airports Authority of India) is under an obligation to follow the directions of the Central government and if DIAL has admittedly assumed those obligations through the OMDA (Operation, Management and Development Agreement) then DIAL is presumably also obligated to follow such directions," said a bench comprising Justice Dalveer Bhandari and Justice Deepak Verma in its judgement on Thursday.
The court rejected the plea of DIAL, the joint venture consortium of GMR group and AAI, that it does not come under the authority of the Centre. If the intent of Parliament was to make DIAL come under the authority of the Central government then it would militated against the basic objective of achieving privatisation of the airports, DAIL had said.
The privatisation of the airports does not mean that the "appropriate government" cannot be the Central government, the apex court said. The court passed its order while deciding whether the Central government notification prohibit employment of contract labour of trolley retrievals in the establishment of AAI at the