Delhi High Court orders SpiceJet, Ajay Singh to pay ₹100 crore to Kalanithi Maran by September 10

The Delhi High Court on Thursday asked SpiceJet and its Chairman and Managing Director (CMD) Ajay Singh to pay ₹100 crore to Kalanithi Maran and his KAL Airways by September 10 failing which the Court may consider attaching the assets of the budget air carrier..Justice Yogesh Khanna passed the order in an execution petition filed by Maran and KAL Airways seeking execution of the arbitral tribunal award in their favour.The Court will hear the matter on September 11..The arbitral award was passed in July 2018 and SpiceJet was ordered to refund ₹270 crore to Maran. The tribunal also ordered the airline to pay interest of 12% per annum on the amounts paid towards warrants and 18% per annum on the sums awarded to Maran if the money is not paid on time.The validity of the award was upheld by a single-judge of the High Court on July 31, 2023.SpiceJet challenged the same before a division bench. However, when the matter was taken up today, the division bench refused to stay the award..Subsequently, when the execution petition came up before single-judge Justice Khanna, Senior Advocate Maninder Singh appeared for Maran and submitted that a division bench refused to grant any stay of the award. Hence, SpiceJet has to pay ₹397 crore to them, it was contended.Singh also demanded attachment of SpiceJet’s entire profit of ₹204 crore towards payment of money owed to Maran.Senior Advocate Akhil Sibal, appearing for SpiceJet and Ajay Singh, disputed the figure and said that the amount calculated by them stood at ₹279 crores. He added that the company is struggling financially and that if it goes under insolvency, it will not help anyone.Justice Khanna, however, said that the Court is only concerned with how they will pay their liabilities to Maran..Besides Sibal, advocate KR Sasiprabhu appeared for SpiceJet.Kalanithi Maran and KAL Airways were represented through Senior Advocate Maninder Singh and Nandini Gore (Senior Partner), Sonia Nigam (Principal Associate), Yash Dubey (Associate) and Akarsh Sharma (Associate) from Karanjawala & Co