Cambata Aviation: HC orders auction of vehicles

In what can be good news for over 1,500 employees of a former leading but now a crisis-ridden ground handling agency in airports, Cambata Aviation, the Bombay High Court recently ordered the Mumbai International Airport Ltd (MIAL) authorities to sell its properties or vehicles in an ‘eauction’ process. Cambata owes around Rs 200 crore to its employees as unpaid salaries.

Notably, there are around 400 properties (equipment or materials) and vehicles of Cambata Aviation, which are lying in the airport premises.

A bench of Justices Shahrukh Kathawalla and Burgess Colabawalla was dealing with a plea filed by MIAL seeking to clear the equipment and vehicles of Cambata, which are parked on the airport premises.

MIAL, in its application, urged the bench to allow it to sell the vehicles on ‘as is where is’ basis and allow it to deposit the sale proceeds of the said public auction with the district collector, after deducting expenses for conducting the auction.

Justice Kathawalla in his orders said, “MIAL is allowed to sell the equipment/materials set out in the list, on as-is-where-is-basis by an e-Auction process. The said process shall be carried out as per the terms set out by the MIAL in the eAuction process.”

“It is clarified that the sale proceeds received pursuant to the auction shall be forwarded by MIAL to the Prothonotary and Senior Master of this court,” the bench added.

The judges further said that after the amount is deposited, the Prothonotary and Senior Master of the HC shall invest the said amount in a fixed deposit (FD) of a nationalised bank, initially for a period of six months and shall thereafter renew the same after seeking permission of the HC.

However, the workers have raised a serious doubt on the numbers as they claim that the list prepared by Talathi and the one submitted to the HC by MIAL has serious discrepancies. “We personally visited the site and helped the Talathi to attach the equipment and other properties at the airport premises. Our list mentioned somewhere around 700 such properties or materials,” said an ex-employee of Cambata.

“But we were shocked to see the list prepared by MIAL. It only mentions 400 such equipment. MIAL is trying to mislead the court. In fact, earlier they claimed that some of the materials have been stolen. But when no one is allowed at the site then how can any theft take place,” the worker added.