Delhi High Court dismisses appeal seeking ₹1,300 cr damages from SpiceJet

The HC said the delay in refiling was deliberate and concealed from the court; arbitration and a single judge had earlier rejected the damages claim by Maran and Kal Airways

The Delhi High Court has dismissed an appeal moved by Kal Airways and businessman Kalanithi Maran, seeking over ₹1,300 crore in damages from SpiceJet, the budget airline disclosed in a regulatory filing on Monday.

 

The appeal had already been rejected by an Arbitral Tribunal and later 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 said in the filing.

 

The court said Maran and Kal Airways had 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 Delhi HC 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 order said. 

In February 2015, Maran and Kal Airways transferred their 58.46 per cent stake in SpiceJet to its Chairman and Managing Director Ajay Singh. Singh took on the airline’s liabilities of around ₹1,500 crore.

 

Maran and Kal Airways reported that they paid SpiceJet ₹679 crore for the issuance of warrants and preference shares. However, Maran claimed that these warrants and preference shares were not allotted, leading him to initiate arbitration proceedings against SpiceJet and Singh. 

In July 2018, the arbitration panel rejected Maran’s claim for ₹1,323 crore in damages for the non-issuance of warrants. Instead, the panel awarded him a refund of ₹579 crore plus interest.

 

SpiceJet was allowed to provide a bank guarantee of ₹329 crore and make a cash deposit of the remaining ₹250-odd crore.