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Informist, Friday, Jul. 4, 2025

 

--Maran, KAL Airways move SC vs HC nixing INR 13-bln damage levy on SpiceJet 

--SC to hear Maran, KAL Airways' plea against SpiceJet on Jul 18 

 

NEW DELHI – Chairman and founder of Sun Group, Kalanithi Maran, and KAL Airways Pvt. Ltd. on Friday moved the Supreme Court against a Delhi High Court's order in May rejecting their claim of INR 13.23 billion in damages against SpiceJet Ltd. The top court listed the matter for hearing on Jul. 18. 

 

In May, the division bench of the high court had observed that Maran, a former promoter of SpiceJet, had engaged in a "calculated gamble" by delaying the filing and re-filing of their appeals. The high court had pulled up KAL Airways and Maran for the delay in filing their appeal, suppressing material facts related to their pending applications, and for unjustifiably delaying the proceedings.

 

"The delay in refiling is completely lacking in bona fides and represents a gamble by the unsuccessful litigant (KAL Airways) keeping all, including the successful litigant (SpiceJet), in the dark," the high court had said.

 

The case has its genesis from Maran and KAL Airways transferring their entire 58.46% stake in SpiceJet to Co-founder Ajay Singh in February 2015. Maran later moved the court, accusing SpiceJet and Singh of breaching their agreement by failing to issue him 189 million share warrants and preference shares. KAL Airways is controlled by Maran. After a dispute between the parties, the issue was referred to an arbitral tribunal by the high court.

 

In 2018, an arbitral tribunal had rejected Maran and KAL Airways' claim of damages worth INR 13.23 billion against SpiceJet for not issuing warrants to the petitioners. However, the arbitral tribunal had awarded a refund of INR 5.79 billion with interest to the petitioners. Thereafter, both the parties had moved the Delhi High Court's single-judge bench, which had upheld the award in 2023. 

 

When the case reached the division bench, the latter found merit in SpiceJet's contention and remanded the matter back to the single-judge bench for fresh consideration. The petitioners sought the same amount in damages before the single-judge bench, which was again rejected by the court. Following this, Maran moved the division bench challenging the single-judge bench order.

 

At 1254 IST, shares of SpiceJet were down 1.1% at INR 39.50 on the BSE.  End

 

IST, or Indian Standard Time, is five-and-a-half hours ahead of GMT

 

Reported by Surya Tripathi

Edited by Tanima Banerjee

 

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