The Delhi High Court on Thursday ordered low-fare airline SpiceJet to pay Rs 380 crore to its former promoter, Kalanithi Maran of the Sun Group and asked the airline to submit an affidavit of assets within four weeks. The ruling is a setback to the airline, which surprised with a four-fold increase in earnings to Rs 106.8 crore in the December quarter, and comes amid a battle with aircraft lessors over payments. Mint has reviewed a copy of the order.
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Maran and SpiceJet dispute
The Maran and SpiceJet dispute dates back to 2015 when Maran and his firm KAL Airways transferred 58.46 per cent of the shares held by them to the present chairman of SpiceJet, Ajay Singh. Aajy Singh, who was the co-founder of the airline, had taken on the airline’s liabilities valued at `1,500 crores. Through this share-transfer agreement, Maran was to be issued warrants and preference shares and had paid `679 crore towards the same. In 2017, Maran moved the Delhi High Court saying that he was neither issued the preference shares as agreed upon nor was the money paid by him refunded. The High Court referred the case for arbitration.
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The arbitration tribunal, in July 2018, awarded a refund to Maran to the tune of Rs 579 crore-plus interest but rejected his claim for Rs 1,323 crore in damages. When Maran challenged this arbitration award before the High Court, the court favoured Maran and directed SpiceJet to deposit Rs 243 crore towards the interest amount. This order of the High Court was stayed by the Supreme Court and came up for hearing on Monday with Maran seeking vacation of the stay order.
