Reliance Infra wins case against DMRC in Delhi High Court

Reliance Infrastructure won its case against the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) in the Delhi High Court on Tuesday.

"The Delhi High Court has upheld the arbitration award of Rs 2,950 crore as compensation along with interest to Delhi Airport Metro Express Private Limited (DAMEPL), a subsidiary of Reliance Infrastructure Limited (RInfra), by a three-member Arbitration Tribunal," a company statement said here on Tuesday.

Reliance Infrastructure stands to get Rs 5,060 crore from the award, which it would entirely utilise to reduce its consolidated debt. This amount is arbitration award amount plus interest till March 31, 2018, the statement said.

Delhi High Court has directed DMRC to deposit Rs 3,502 crore in escrow account within four weeks.

Following the judgment of the Delhi High Court in the matter, an Reliance Infrastructure spokesperson said: "Now that the Delhi High Court has upheld the award by the arbitration tribunal, we expect the compensation to be paid expeditiously, which we shall utilise to retire the outstanding debt of RInfra and DAMEPL."

"The High Court upheld the validity of the award granted by the three-member arbitration tribunal unanimously on the basis of termination provisions of the concession agreement, which DAMEPL had utilised to terminate its agreement with Delhi Metro Rail Corporation," the statement said.

The three-member Arbitration Tribunal, was formed out of the DMRC-nominated panel as per the Concession Agreement in September 2013. It gave its award in May 2017 after hearing the case for almost four years.

The tribunal heard the submissions made by both the parties and after detailed proceedings in 68 hearings, it had issued its final order whereby it had awarded the compensation to DAMEPL.

--IANS

ag/vm