National Company Law Tribunal orders liquidation of Go First airline

NEW DELHI: The National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) on Monday ordered the liquidation of GoAir (Go First) following a request from lenders of the bankrupt airline. The Wadia Group airline had stopped flying in May 2023 when it filed a voluntary plea for insolvency.
Once attempts to revive it under India’s bankruptcy laws did not materialise, lenders last August had sought to liquidate the company’s assets. GoAir owes over Rs 6,521 crore to creditors including Central Bank of India, Bank of Baroda, IDBI Bank and Deutsche Bank.
Allowing the committee of creditors’ application for Go First’s liquidation, a bench of NCLT comprising judicial member Mahendra Khandelwal and technical member Sanjeev Ranjan directed that Shailendra Ajmera, the airline’s resolution professional, be relieved from that responsibility. “D T Veokatasubramanian is appointed as the liquidator… This order shall be deemed to be notice of discharge to the officers, employees and the workmen of the corporate debtor,” NCLT said.
“The liquidator shall also follow up the pending applications for their disposal during the process of liquidation including initiation of steps for recovery of dues of the corporate debtor. The Liquidator shall submit a preliminary report to the adjudicating authority within 75 days from the liquidation commencement date,” it said.
Go First, which had started flying in 2005 around the same time as IndiGo and SpiceJet, flew for 18 years before it joined the long list of defunct Indian airlines that includes Air Deccan, Kingfisher and Jet Airways.