Written by Sohini GhoshNew Delhi | November 11, 2025 10:11 AM IST 3 min readThe Delhi High Court on Monday sought responses from Delhi International Airport Ltd (DIAL) and Airports Authority of India (AAI) in an appeal filed by Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD), challenging a single judge’s ruling that held that DIAL was the “exclusive custodian” of the airport and the Aerocity area, including responsibility for solid waste management.Justice Jyoti Singh had partly set aside a November 2024 tender notice by MCD, which stated that it was looking to select an agency to establish a 50-tonne-per-day (TPD) material recovery facility (MRF) to manage dry solid waste in Sector 29, Dwarka, in the Najafgarh zone. The single judge had excluded the airport and Aerocity area from the scope of the tender, while permitting MCD to proceed with the tender for the rest of the areas under Sector-29 Dwarka in the Najafgarh zone.Arguing the appeal, MCD counsel Tushar Sannu on Monday informed the division bench of Chief Justice D K Upadhyaya and Justice Tushar Rao Gedela that the MCD has “not been able to float the tender” for the work since the single judge’s order in September. The MCD further orally requested a stay on the single judge’s judgment, highlighting that it would have wider ramifications. “If this judgment is allowed to operate, then individual operators will also claim they are also bulk waste generators…,” the MCD emphasised.The bench, however, refused to stay the judgment, orally observing that the single judge’s order “is not going to affect the MCD’s right with respect to solid waste management elsewhere”, while issuing notice to DIAL, impleading AAI as a party, and issuing notice. The bench is now due to hear the matter next on November 28.The MCD, in its appeal, has submitted that while the responsibility of managing and processing wet waste lies with bulk waste generators, such as the airport, the Solid Waste Management Rules specifically state that dry waste must be handed over to the local body waste collector or agency authorised by the urban local body to collect waste on its behalf, emphasising that the MCD is the designated urban local body in this case.Notably, DIAL, through senior advocate Rajiv Nayar, submitted before the court that by way of a Cabinet decision in 1997, AAI was designated as a local body for the airport site, which includes Aerocity, and subsequently, by way of an agreement with DIAL, the latter had stepped into the shoes of AAI, empowering it to manage solid waste from this site.© The Indian Express Pvt Ltd