New Delhi: The Delhi High Court on Tuesday refused to staythe Look out Circular against former Jet Airways chairman Naresh Goyal and hiswife Anita Goyal. The HC has issued notice to centre and asked respondents tofile reply by next date of hearing 19 August. Goyal had moved High Courtseeking direction to quash the LOC issued against him. He also sought thequashing of certain office memoranda issued against him.

The circular was issued against Goyal by the Serious FraudInvestigation Office (SFIO) under the Corporate Affairs Ministry after it foundseveral irregularities in the aviation company, which had halted operations inApril this year due to acute cash crunch Justice Vibhu Bakhru had recusedhimself from hearing Goyal`s plea when the matter came up on July 5 hence thematter was listed before another bench on today (July 9)

On May 25, Goyal and his wife Anita Goyal were stopped fromleaving the country by immigration authorities at Mumbai airport when beforeflying out on an Emirates flight.

Goyal had set up the company with his wife in 1993. InFebruary this year, he had quit as the chairman of the carrier and along withhis wife, he also stepped down from the board of the airline.

The crisis-hit airline has battled acute financial woes estimatedto be more than Rs 8,000 crore. The crunch not only forced the airline toground aircraft leading to the cancellation of several flights but had causeddelayed salary payments to its pilots, engineers and other senior staff.