SC stays HC order asking SpiceJet to pay around Rs. 243 cr to Kalanithi Maran, firm
New Delhi: The Supreme Court has stayed a Delhi High Court order asking cash-strapped airlines SpiceJet to deposit around Rs 243 crore as interest in connection with a share transfer dispute with its former promoter and media baron Kalanithi Maran and his firm KAL Airways.
A bench comprising Chief Justice S A Bobde and justices A S Bopanna and V Ramasubramanian also issued notices to Kalanithi Maran and his firm on an appeal of SpiceJet Ltd and its promoter filed against the September 2 order of the Delhi High Court.
"Issue notice returnable within four weeks.
"There shall be a stay of operation of the impugned order until further orders," said the bench in its order after hearing both parties via video conferencing on Friday.
SpiceJet and its promoter Ajay Singh were asked to deposit around Rs 243 crore as interest payable on Rs 579 crore, which the high court had in 2017 asked the airline to deposit under the 2018 arbitration award in the share transfer dispute.
The high court had granted six weeks to SpiceJet Ltd to make the payment and the deadline for paying the money, as per the September 2 order, expired on October 14.
After this, Maran and his firm had moved the high court for attachment of the entire shareholding of Singh in Spicejet and taking over the management for non-payment of Rs 243 crore.
The top court took note of the appeal of the Spicejet and passed an interim order staying the high court order.
Maran and KAL had moved the high court over a share transfer dispute with SpiceJet, demanding that 18 crore warrants redeemable as equity shares be transferred to them.
The high court on July 29, 2016 had asked both parties to settle the share transfer dispute under arbitration.
It had directed SpiceJet and Singh to deposit Rs 579 crore in the high court's registry.
SpiceJet was permitted to furnish a bank guarantee for Rs 329 crore and make a cash deposit of the remaining sum of Rs 250 crore by the high court.
The apex court, in July 2017, had dismissed SpiceJet's appeal against the HC order.
On July 20, 2018, the arbitral tribunal had rejected Maran's claim of damages of Rs 1,323 crore for not issuing warrants to him and KAL Airways but had awarded him a refund of Rs 579 crore plus interest.
Maran, the owner of Sun TV Network, then moved the high court against the arbitration award.
The matter pertained to a dispute arising out of non-issuance of warrants in favour of Maran after the transfer of ownership to Singh, the controlling shareholder of SpiceJet.
The dispute started after Singh took back control of the airline in February 2015 amidst a financial crisis.
Maran and his KAL Airways had transferred their entire 350.4 million equity shares in SpiceJet, amounting to a 58.46 percent stake in the airline, to its co-founder Singh in February 2015 for just Rs 2.
Spicejet was debt-ridden and was even forced to shut operations for a day in December 2014 due to a cash crunch.
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India should create strategic buffers to navigate 'most difficult' energy shock: CEA Nageswaran
New Delhi (PTI): Chief Economic Advisor V Anantha Nageswaran on Saturday said India needs to create strategic buffers in the face of the "most difficult" energy shock that the country is facing amid the West Asia crisis.
Nageswaran also said the rising prices of fertiliser and petroleum products globally due to the crisis will make it challenging to achieve the 4.3 per cent fiscal deficit target for the current fiscal, while below normal monsoon and pass-through of higher energy prices could lead to "potential inflation spike".
He also said India has employment challenge emanating from AI, and there is a need to ensure that IT sector becomes more competitive and not lose jobs to AI, and instead create jobs that use AI within the IT sector or in other services.
Speaking at the ICPP Growth Conference organised by the Ashoka University, Nageswaran said the current account deficit (CAD) in the current fiscal could rise to over 2 per cent of GDP, from less than 1 per cent in FY'26.
"The ... priority for us is to create strategic buffers. This energy shock is the most difficult one compared to any other previous energy shock in terms of energy lost as a percentage of total global energy supply, not just oil, including gas.
"And we also need to use this occasion to think about other areas where we are vulnerable in terms of import dependence, nickel, tin, and copper. We need to build strategic buffers if we have to make a shot at manufacturing and becoming indispensable," Nageswaran said.
Since the beginning of the war in West Asia on February 28, crude oil prices soared to a four-year high of USD 126 per barrel on Thursday, from about USD 73 level before the war.
Stating that geopolitics will compel policymakers to be nimble and flexible and shed old model of thinking, Nageswaran said India is better prepared than many other countries to deal with the crisis because of the fiscal leeway that the country has due to lowering of fiscal deficit ratio to 4.4 per cent of GDP in FY'26.
Nageswaran said the West Asia conflict is more of a price shock than supply shock for India as the government is managing the supply side deftly.
"This particular conflict, which is going to be on a low simmer or a high flame situation, whatever it is, it is going to be there with us in some form or the other because the military conflict may be over, but the strategic conflict is well and truly alive. It will be so for some time," Nageswaran said.
He said the conflict has four channels of shock: price and supply shock, trade impact, sticky logistics costs and remittance shock.
India imports 60 per cent of its LPG usage and of that, 90 per cent flows through the now closed Strait of Hormuz.
Nageswaran said the pass-through of high global energy prices would have to be a "balancing act". He said some pass-through is already happening in commercial LPG, and the levy of export duty on diesel and ATF.
The government has cut excise duty on petrol and diesel to shield customers from the impact of the rise in petroleum prices. "We are coming around to arriving at a certain modus vivendi with respect to burden-sharing between the fiscal policy side, inflation, households and the oil marketing companies. So it has to be a balancing act," Nageswaran said.
