The resolution professional has cleared the first hurdle for the debt-stricken airline, and is watching the court battle as lenders challenge the NCLT decision to transfer ownership
Ashish Chhawchharia, Resolution Professional for Jet Airways and an Insolvency Professional registered with the IBBI.
Image: Indranil Bhoumik for Forbes India
Ashish Chhawchharia remembers June 16, 2019, like it was yesterday. That afternoon, the Indian men’s cricket team was playing Pakistan in the group stages of the ICC World Cup in Manchester. His friends had gone over to watch the match and there was much to cheer for. The south Asian neighbours were coming together on the field for the first time since the Balakot air strikes that had brought both countries to the brink of war. Patriotic fervour, not to mention, was feverishly high.
India batted first and Rohit Sharma went on to smash a century. Virat Kohli and KL Rahul scored half-centuries each and India put up a rather colossal total of 336 in 50 overs. In response, Pakistan could only score 212 in 40 overs after rain disrupted play. The men in blue went on to win by 89 runs after the Duckworth-Lewis method was applied.
Somewhere in between, Chhawchharia received a phone call that would go on to change his life. “Little did I know that my life will change that day,” Chhawchharia tells Forbes India over a Zoom call. The caller, who Chhawchharia prefers to keep anonymous, informed him about a decision by a group of banks in India designating him as the man in charge of deciding the fate of one of India’s beloved airlines, Jet Airways, which had stopped flying a few months before that.
Chhawchharia, of course, knew Jet Airways, and its turbulent journey since debt began spiralling out of control at the Mumbai-headquartered airline in 2018. He had been a frequent flier and a platinum member on the country’s oldest private airline. Apart from leading the restructuring practice and looking after the eastern region for the consultancy firm, Grant Thornton, Chhawchharia had little to do with the airline then.
This time around, he was tasked with overseeing one of corporate India’s biggest insolvency cases and the first one in the country’s aviation history. While he had been following the news closely and knew that the banks led by the SBI (State Bank of India) were trying to revive the business by infusing more capital into the company, Chhawchharia had no clue that he was only staring at the tip of the iceberg. “I had no way to know what was happening on the inside,” says the 49-year-old.