New Delhi, May 4 The Delhi High Court on Monday dismissed pleas moved by SpiceJet and its promoter Ajay Singh seeking a review of an earlier order asking the airline to deposit Rs 144 crore in connection with its legal dispute with media baron Kalanithi Maran and Kal Airways.
Justice Subramonium Prasad also imposed a cost of Rs 50,000 on the airline and Singh, and directed them to take immediate steps to deposit the amount of Rs 144,51,69,887 with the registry.
On January 19, the court directed SpiceJet and Singh to deposit Rs 144 crore with the registry within six weeks against an admitted liability of Rs 194 crore, pursuant to an arbitration award against them in their dispute with Maran. On March 18, the time to make the deposit was extended by four weeks.
Singh and his budget airline had sought a reconsideration of the March 18 direction on several counts, including financial distress amid the ongoing West Asia conflict.
SpiceJet instead offered a commercial property in Gurugram as security and informed the court that the Centre is willing to offer some assistance to it.
In the judgment, the court stated that the hostilities that broke out in February-March could not be used to the advantage of SpiceJet and Singh when the Supreme Court made the arbitration award executable "way back" in July 2023.
It also said the airline's "declining" financial health has not changed since then and the ground of "financial distress" was considered at the time of passing the March 18 direction.
"This court is of the opinion that the review petitioners are now attempting to take advantage of an event that has taken place more than two years after the passing of the order by the apex court directing the arbitral award to become executable, which cannot be permitted in any manner whatsoever. The review petitioners are, therefore, constantly disobeying the orders of the apex court," it stated.
With respect to the submission that the petitioners should be given some more time to let them make an attempt to sell SpiceJet's property and deposit the sale proceeds, the court observed that such time was granted to them earlier and the petitioners are "only abusing the indulgence" given to them.
"This court fails to see any valid ground raised by the review petitioners which would warrant a review of the impugned order, especially when the present proceedings are now at the stage of execution of the arbitral award as directed by the apex court and now, no question of equity or hardship can arise," it said.
"This court is, therefore, inclined to dismiss the present review petitions with a cost of Rs 50,000, to be deposited by the review petitioners with the Armed Forces Battle Casualties' Welfare Fund within four weeks from today," the court ordered.
Maran and Kal Airways, represented in the court by senior advocates Jayant Mehta and law firm Karanjawala, opposed the review petitions, saying the issues arising from financial distress were already considered and rejected by the Supreme Court.
The matter arises from a dispute regarding the non-issuance of warrants in favour of Maran after the transfer of SpiceJet's ownership to Singh, the controlling shareholder of the airline.
The dispute started after Singh took back control of SpiceJet in February 2015 amid a financial crisis at the airline.
Maran and Kal Airways had transferred their entire 35.04 crore equity shares, amounting to a 58.46-per cent stake, in SpiceJet to its co-founder, Singh, in February 2015 for just Rs 2.
In May 2024, a division bench of the high court set aside an order of a single-judge bench that had upheld an arbitral award asking SpiceJet and Singh to refund Rs 579 crore plus interest to Maran.
A bench of Justices Yashwant Varma and Ravinder Dudeja allowed the appeals filed by Singh and SpiceJet challenging the July 31, 2023, order of the single-judge bench and remanded the matter back to the court concerned to consider the petitions afresh.
