SC dismisses Spicejet's plea seeking extension to pay dues to Maran

A bench of Supreme Court (SC) presided over by Chief Justice of India (CJI) DY Chandrachud and Justice PS Narasimha on Friday dismissed the applications filed by Spicejet seeking an extension to pay Rs 75 crore to Kal Airways and Kalanithi Maran.

While dismissing the plea, the bench said that the present application is "nothing but a delay tactic of Spicejet Ltd to not pay money even when there are court orders directing the same".

SC had passed the order on February 13 directing Spicejet to pay Rs 75 crore to Kal Airways and Kalanithi Maran within three months towards its interest liability under the arbitral award. The apex court had also made it clear that in the event of failure by Spicejet to pay, the entire award would become "executable in entirety in favour of Kal Airways and Kalanithi Maran".

 

The applications were moved by Spicejet seeking an extension of time for two more months as the three months time period had expired on May 13.

When the matter was taken up, Maninder Singh, representing Kal Airways and Kalanithi Maran, submitted that Spicejet is not honouring the court orders. It had earlier too failed to comply with a Delhi High Court order directing Spicejet to file its affidavit of disclosure of its assets and the same is not filed to date.

On May 29, the Delhi high court directed Spicejet to pay the entire executable amount under the award to Kal Airways and Kalanithi Maran.

"Since the judgment debtor had failed to pay an amount of Rs 75 crores to the decree-holder, hence in terms of para 15(ii) of the order dated 13.02.2023 of the Hon’ble Supreme Court, there is no other alternative except to call upon the judgment debtors to deposit the entire outstanding amount qua interest forthwith," it added.

Mukul Rohatgi, on behalf of Spicejet, asked the Supreme Court that the matter be listed after 3-4 days to present its case and work out the way to resolve the matter as "Spicejet is facing financial issues".

The SC observed that a "clear message needs to be sent" across, especially in commercial matters.