Legal Tangle
HC refuses urgent listing of SpiceJet plea against order to ground engines
This story was originally published at 14:05 IST on 16 August 2024
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NEW DELHI – The division bench of the Delhi High Court today refused urgent listing of SpiceJet's petition against the single judge's order directing it to ground by today its three engines on non-payment of dues to lessors--Team France 01 SAS and Sunbird France 02 SAS. On Friday, a single judge bench of the high court had asked SpiceJet to return the engines in 15 days to the lessors and said that necessary arrangements should be made for inspection of these engines.
Advocate Amit Sibal, appearing for SpiceJet, said that the single judge's order would effectively lead to grounding of two of their planes. "We only have a fleet of 21 aircraft. The engines are to be grounded as of today. Each aircraft uses two engines so the order will effectively lead to grounding of two aircraft. It will cause public inconvenience. There are flights booked..." said Sibal. However, the Bench of Acting Chief Justice Manmohan and Justice Manmeet Pritam Singh Arora said that it was very difficult to list the matter today because "quite a few people (judges) are on leave". The court will now hear the matter on Tuesday.
On May 29, the high court had asked SpiceJet to pay $4.8 mln to the lessors as an interim arrangement to continue using their three leased engines. SpiceJet would pay the amount in four instalments to the lessors, the court had said.
In addition, the airline would make weekly payments of $160,000 to the lessors from Jun 8 to Sep 30. If the airline misses any payment, it will be liable to ground its three engines and return these within 15 calendar days, the court had said. After this payment, the parties will discuss the remaining plan of payment related to the outstanding $3.6 mln, it had said. The above interim arrangement will remain in place, and subject to its compliance, the airline will continue to use the engines, said the court.
In December, the lessors had filed two suits seeking a decree of permanent injunction restraining SpiceJet and its directors and employees from utilising the said engines any further. The lessors had also sought directions from the court to SpiceJet to hand over these engines to them and compensate them for the cost associated with their repossession and also pay them the outstanding lease charges.
On Jul 31, the lessors said SpiceJet had failed to comply with the statements given to the court and sought an injunction against the airline from operating the engines. SpiceJet accepted the default and said that the payment would be made till Aug 8. However, the airline did not make the payment.
At 1230 IST, shares of SpiceJet were trading 0.9% higher at 55.55 rupees on the BSE. End
US$1 = 83.96 rupees
IST, or Indian Standard Time, is five-and-a-half hours ahead of GMT
Reported by Surya Tripathi
Edited by Deepshikha Bhardwaj
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