New Delhi (ILNS): The Supreme Court yesterday stayed the order of the Delhi High Court which had directed Spicejet Ltd to deposit Rs 243 crore in the ongoing arbitration case with its former owner Kalanithi Maran.
The bench of Chief Justice SA Bobde, AS Bopanna, and V Ramasubramaninan was hearing an appeal filed by Spicejet against the order of the Delhi High court where the bench had earlier issued a notice on the appeal.
The High Court had directed Spicejet to deposit the amount with the High Court Registry within a period of 6 weeks. When Spicejet failed to comply with the High Court’s order, Kalanithi Maran and KAL Airways filed a plea before the Delhi High Court seeking attachment of Ajay Singh’s shareholding in Spicejet.
KAL also sought the appointment of a director to take over the management of Spicejet. Subsequent to the High Court’s order, Spicejet moved to the Supreme Court where the Court has granted an interim stay on the High court’s order.
In 2015 Maran and KAL had transferred 58.46 percent stake in Spicejet to Ajay Singh when the airline was suffering from severe cash shortages.
Maran and KAL claimed that they had paid Rs 679 Crores to Spicejet in exchange of warrants and preference shares.
In 2017, Maran filed a case against Singh and Spicejet alleging non-issuance of the warrants and preference shares nor of the return of the money paid to them.
In 2019 the Arbitration panel rejected Maran’s claim of damages but directed payment of Rs 579 as an award.
The award of the arbitration panel was then challenged before the Delhi High Court.
-India Legal Bureau