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Informist, Wednesday, Dec. 24, 2025

 

NEW DELHI – The Mumbai bench of the National Company Law Tribunal has rejected the plea of the consortium of United Arab Emirates-based entrepreneur Murari Lal Jalan and European investor Florian Fritsch, seeking a refund of INR 3.7 billion from creditors of the debt-ridden Jet Airways (India) Ltd. The consortium had said the amount infused by it to keep Jet Airways as a going concern should be treated as part of the cost of the corporate insolvency resolution process.

 

If a resolution plan fails or is not approved, the committee of creditors bears the corporate insolvency resolution process costs, which are paid from the corporate debtor's assets during liquidation.

 

The consortium had paid a performance bank guarantee of INR 1.50 billion and share capital money of INR 2.00 billion as the first tranche amount in the Jet Airways insolvency process. Further, it had paid INR 207.63 million to keep Jet Airways as a "going concern".

 

In November 2024, the Supreme Court had ordered the liquidation of Jet Airways after the consortium had failed to implement the resolution plan. The apex court had directed forfeiture of INR 2.00 billion infused by the consortium in the first tranche. It had also permitted the lenders to encash the performance bank guarantee of INR 1.50 billion.

 

The tribunal said that in view of the Supreme Court's directions, the amounts paid by the consortium stood forfeited. Granting the relief sought by the petitioners would result in nullifying the top court's decision, it said. "Accordingly, we do not find any merit in the applicant's contentions that these amounts of Rs. 350 Crores (INR 3.50 billion) be considered as CIRP(corporate insolvency resolution process) costs," the tribunal said. Regarding the refund of INR 207.63 million, the tribunal said these were incurred after the plan was approved, after which the insolvency resolution process comes to an end. Therefore, this amount would not fall within the scope of corporate insolvency resolution process costs.

 

Jet Airways has been grounded since 2019 after the Mumbai tribunal admitted State Bank of India's insolvency petition against the company. In the insolvency process, the Jalan-Fristch consortium emerged as the winning bidder to take over the airline in 2021. Thereafter, there were multiple rounds of litigation across various fora over the consortium's failure to release money on time and to get necessary permissions from the civil aviation authorities to revive the airline. While the consortium had insisted it was in a position to implement the revival plan, the lenders had termed its claim a "fantasy".

 

Wednesday, shares of State Bank of India closed slightly lower at INR 968.95 on the National Stock Exchange.  End

 

Reported by Surya Tripathi

Edited by Rajeev Pai

 

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