Industry

Delhi HC asks SpiceJet to pay Rs 50 cr to KAL Airways in 6 weeks



The Delhi High Court on Monday asked Ajay Singh-led private carrier SpiceJet to pay Rs 50 crore to KAL Airways within six weeks in a case relating to an arbitration award won by the airline’s former promoter Kalanithi Maran and KAL Airways Pvt Ltd.
The HC has asked SpiceJet to make the payment subject to the outcome of an appeal by the carrier challenging the interest amount in the arbitration award.
The case has been posted for further hearing on May 14.
The case dates back to January 2015, when Singh, who owned the airline earlier, bought it back from Maran after it was grounded for months due to a resource crunch.

While the tribunal had asked Maran to pay Singh and the airline Rs 29 crore in penal interest, Singh was asked to refund Rs 579 crore plus interest to Maran.

The tribunal, created in 2016 on the orders of the Delhi High Court to adjudicate the share transfer dispute, had held that there was no breach of a share sale and purchase agreement reached between Maran and current promoter Singh in late January 2015.In February 2015, Maran of the Sun Network and Kal Airways, his investment vehicle, had transferred their 58.46 per cent stake in SpiceJet to Singh for Rs 2 along with Rs 1,500 crore debt liability, after the airline was grounded due to a severe cash crunch.Singh was the first co-founder of the airline and is now its chairman and managing director.

As part of the agreement, Maran and Kal Airways had claimed to have paid SpiceJet Rs 679 crore for issuing warrants and preference shares.

However, Maran approached the Delhi High Court in 2017, alleging SpiceJet had neither issued convertible warrants and preference shares nor returned the money.

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