The Delhi High Court has ordered the airline to pay Rs 380 crore to Kalanithi Maran of KAL Airlines and has asked it to file an affidavit of assets
Published Date – Thursday, 01 June 23 at 9:00pm
New Delhi: SpiceJet suffered a setback when the Delhi High Court ordered the company to pay Korean Air’s Kalanithi Maran Rs 380 crore and gave the company four weeks to file an affidavit of assets.
A judge of Justice Yogesh Khanna said: “Since the judgment debtor has failed to pay Rs. There is no alternative to depositing the entire outstanding amount as interest, and so directed. The asset affidavit is also to be filed within four weeks from today.”
The high court order comes after the Supreme Court’s February 13 order ordering SpiceJet to pay Rs 750 crore to KAL Airways, which is controlled by SpiceJet’s former promoter Kalanithi Maran, within three months. However, airlines are not doing this.
In its order dated May 29, the High Court said: “An amount of Rs. 750 crore has been filed by the learned senior counsel of the Decree Holder but has not yet been deposited, so the interest liability is Rs. 362.49 crore as stated in paragraph 11 .The order dated February 13, 2023 was thereafter increased to Rs 380 crore, so the Decree Holder insists on compliance with the order dated February 13, 2023.”
The High Court order stems from a long-running battle between the Maran family and current promoters Ajay Singh and SpiceJet over contractual obligations.
In an order dated May 29, the high court said: “However, the learned senior counsel of the judgment debtors stated that they have paid the principal of Rs. Extend the period for judgment debtors by another three months to pay Rs 750 crore to fiat holders.”
The High Court said the decree holder’s arguments seemed plausible as it was recognized that the order passed by the Supreme Court on 13 February contained no amendments and therefore needed to be followed.
Senior Counsel Maninder Singh was assisted by Mr Nandini Gore, Sonia Nigam, Yash Dubey and Mr Arun Kumar. Yashwant Gaggar from Karanjawala & Co. appeared on behalf of Kal Airways.
Lawyers representing Kal Airways argued that SpiceJet failed to comply with the order of the Delhi High Court dated November 4, 2020 by failing to file an affidavit of assets.
Further, SpiceJet was directed to pay Rs 242,93,70,845.56 within three weeks after the Delhi High Court passed the order on September 2, 2020. SpiceJet attempted to amend the order, but their application was denied. They then challenged the orders to the Supreme Court, which by order dated 13 February 2023 directed them to honor the bank guarantee and pay the specified amount directly to Kal Airways. Despite the Supreme Court’s intervention, SpiceJet was also ordered to pay Kal Airways an additional Rs 750 crore, or interest liability, within three months.
Singh further argued that Rs 750 crore had not been deposited, resulting in an increase in interest liabilities of Rs 380 crore. Singh said the timetable for the payment of the interest amount has already been fixed by the Supreme Court, so the single judge has no power to extend the deadline.
