The legal dispute between Delhi International Airport Limited, the operator of Indira Gandhi International Airport (IGIA), and the Centre has escalated following DIAL's challenge to the government's decision to allow commercial flights from Hindon, a defence airbase in Ghaziabad.

Delhi High Court on Monday asked the Centre to file a response on DIAL’s petition. During the hearing, Justice Sachin Dutta was informed that DIAL had withdrawn a similar petition in January 2024 with permission to file a representation before the ministry of civil aviation or the Airports Authority of India.

However, the GMR Group-led DIAL has returned to the court, expressing dissatisfaction with the government's rejection of its concerns about commercial flights operating from Hindon.

After hearing the submission by DIAL's lawyer, Justice Dutta issued a notice to the Centre on the petition and listed the matter for hearing on April 28.

According to sources, DIAL filed a representation before the authority concerned on February 6 but the government didn't agree with the operator of Indira Gandhi International Airport (IGIA) and rejected it on March 11. The sources said that one of the requests made by DIAL to the government was permission to manage flight services at Hindon.

In the fresh petition, DIAL iterated its earlier submission on the State Support Agreement (SSA) signed between the civil aviation ministry and the IGIA operator on April 26, 2006. Clause 3.4 of the SSA provides for the right of first refusal (RoFR) to DIAL concerning a "second airport" that may be planned within 150km of the Delhi airport in a competitive bidding process.

According to AAI, DIAL had exhausted the RoFR in an unsuccessful attempt to bid for the second airport at Jewar, Noida, where it lost to Swiss firm Zurich AG. The Centre maintained that DIAL had lost the bid to develop Jewar and had no right to object to a third airport within 150km and Hindon has been functioning as a civil enclave since 2017.

Earlier this month, Air India Express commenced its services from Hindon, located 30km from IGIA.