Supreme Court to hear KAL Airways plea against SpiceJet on July 18

Kalanithi Maran and KAL Airways have approached the Supreme Court after the Delhi HC dismissed their pleas for Rs 1,323 crore in damages from SpiceJet, citing delays in appeal filing

Sun Group founder Kalanithi Maran and KAL Airways -- an airline backed by him -- on Friday moved the Supreme Court challenging a Delhi High Court’s May 23 order dismissing their pleas seeking damages of ₹1,323 crore from SpiceJet.

 

The apex court will hear the case on July 18.

 

While rejecting their plea in May, the Delhi High Court had observed that the former promoter of SpiceJet

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.

 

The court 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 merits,” the 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 had transferred their entire 58.46 per cent stake in the airline to Ajay Singh -- who also took over liabilities worth ₹1,500 crore.

 

The former Union minister and his airline 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.

 

About two years later, Maran and KAL Airways approached the Delhi High Court, which directed them to the arbitration panel.