CHENNAI / NEW DELHI: A day after the Madras High Court ordered the winding up of SpiceJet over its failure to make payments to a Swiss maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO) service provider, the private carrier said on Tuesday that it was planning to appeal.
SpiceJet owes around $24 million to Zurich-based SR Technics, with which it has a 10-year agreement to avail MRO service. On Monday, the single-judge bench of Justice R Subramanian allowed the petition by Credit Suisse AG, which had been assigned the right to receive payments due to SR Technics and ordered that the airline be wound up. The operation of the verdict was, however, stayed for three weeks following a plea by the airline on condition that SpiceJet deposit $5 million with the court in two weeks.
The court rejected the airline’s contention that SR Technics did not possess DGCA’s approval from 2009 to 2015, saying the airline had availed of the services.SpiceJet said the Swiss firm made the “fraudulent misrepresentation” of having DGCA approval. This, the company said, is contrary to Indian and other applicable laws and therefore, makes the entire agreement infructuous. “Since the agreement falls and is void, Credit Suisse as an assignee does not and cannot have any claim against the Company,” SpiceJet said.