New Delhi, The Delhi High Court on Thursday reserved order on petitions by SpiceJet and its promoter Ajay Singh, seeking a review of an earlier order to deposit Rs 144 crore in connection with its legal dispute with media baron Kalanithi Maran and Kal Airways.
Justice Subramonium Prasad reserved the order after hearing the senior counsel appearing for the parties.
On January 19, the court directed SpiceJet and Ajay Singh to deposit Rs 144 crore with the registry within six weeks against an admitted liability of Rs 194 crore. On March 18, time to make the deposit was extended by four weeks.
Ajay Singh and his budget airline sought reconsideration of the March 18 direction on several counts, including financial distress amid the ongoing war in West Asia.
SpiceJet instead offered a commercial property in Gurugram as security and informed the court that the Centre was willing to offer it some assistance.
Senior advocate Mukul Rohatgi, appearing for Ajay Singh and SpiceJet, on Thursday said shutting down the airline would not be in public interest and that the law does not mandate that security can only be in the form of cash and can be in the form of a property, bond or undertaking as well.
“The government will give me some lifeline. I will give that lifeline to him. At the end of the day, public interest also demands that we don’t shut down one of the three airlines,” Rohatgi said.
Senior advocate Jayant Mehta, appearing for Maran and Kal Airways opposed the review petitions, saying the issues arising from financial distress have already been 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 ownership to Ajay Singh, the controlling shareholder of SpiceJet.
The dispute started after Ajay 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, Ajay Singh, in February 2015 for just Rs 2.
In May 2024, the division bench of the high court set aside a single judge bench order which had upheld an arbitral award asking SpiceJet and Ajay Singh to refund Rs 579 crore plus interest to media baron Kalanithi Maran.
A bench of Justices Yashwant Varma and Ravinder Dudeja allowed the appeals filed by Ajay Singh and SpiceJet challenging the single judge’s July 31, 2023, order and remanded the matter back to the court concerned to consider the petitions afresh. PTI
