 "SC rejects Kalanithi Maran, KAL plea seeking ₹1,323 cr from SpiceJet")
The Supreme Court on Wednesday upheld the Delhi High Court’s decision to dismiss an appeal by KAL Airways and its founder Kalanithi Maran seeking damages of ₹1,323 crore from low-cost carrier SpiceJet.
Maran, a former promoter of SpiceJet, and KAL Airways moved the Supreme Court earlier this month to challenge the High Court order of May 23. A Supreme Court bench of Justice P S Narasimha and Justice A S Chandurkar dismissed the special leave petition.
The High Court had observed Maran engaged in a calculated gamble by delaying and re-filing their challenge to the arbitral award. “This...is not a simple case of delay in removing objections in refiling the appeals. It is a case of deliberate and wilful concealment of facts both from the division bench as well as from the respondents and a calculated gamble taken by the appellants,” the High Court had said.
It declined to condone the delay of 55 days in filing and 226 days in re-filing the present appeals. “As the application for condonation of delay in filing and re-filing have been dismissed, the appeals also stand dismissed on the ground of delay without going into the merits,” the High Court had said.
Earlier, the petitions of Maran and KAL Airways were rejected by an arbitral tribunal, and then by a single judge Bench of the High Court.
Arbitration proceedings, led by a panel of three retired Supreme Court judges, had also rejected the damages claim, SpiceJet had said in a filing.
The case goes back to 2015, when Maran and KAL Airways transferred their entire 58.46 per cent stake in SpiceJet to Ajay Singh, who also took over liabilities of ₹1,500 crore.
Maran, founder of Sun Group of companies, and KAL Airways also claimed to have paid ₹679 crore to SpiceJet for issuing convertible warrants and preference shares. But they later alleged that SpiceJet failed to issue these securities and sought ₹1,323 crore in damages.
Maran and KAL Airways approached the High Court, which directed them to the arbitration panel.
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