SC closes Centre's plea challenging order for GMR to operate Nagpur airport

The Supreme Court on Friday closed the proceedings on a curative plea of the Centre and the Airport Authority of India against its verdict allowing private firm GMR Airports to upgrade and operate Nagpur's Babasaheb Ambedkar International Airport. The top court's decision was taken after taking note of the independent professional opinion of Solicitor General Tushar Mehta that the curative plea of the Centre and the AAI did not fall under one of legal parameters prescribed for entertaining such pleas. The curative plea is the last legal recourse available to a litigant and it was devised by the top court by a 2002 judgement in the Rupa Ashok Hurra case and such a plea, after the dismissal of the main case and the review petition, can be filed if there are certain violations. They are that there should be a violation of the principle of natural justice, apprehension of bias and the abuse of judicial process. On Friday, the top law officer told a special four-judge bench of Chief ...