NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Tuesday granted five weeks to SpiceJet to settle its long pending share transfer dispute with media baron and former promoter of the airline Kalanithi Maran, and said that it would also consider a joint request for mediation between the two parties to come to a settlement.
A bench comprising Chief Justice N V Ramana and Justices J K Maheshwari and Hima Kohli was apprised by senior advocate Mukul Rohatgi, appearing on behalf of SpiceJet, that there were three pending issues between the two parties and out of these, one has been settled on July 29. Rohtagi was initially seeking four to six weeks time for settling the issues.
Senior advocate Vikas Singh, representing Maran and his Kal Airways, suggested to the Top Court that the settlement talks could be referred to the Hyderabad Mediation Centre to which the Bench said, “We will see”.
The bench was hearing SpiceJet’s appeal against the November 2, 2020 order of the Delhi High Court, asking the budget airline to deposit around Rs 243 crore as interest in connection with the share transfer dispute with Maran, and Kal Airways.
The matter has its root in a dispute arising out of the non-issuance of warrants in favour of Maran after the transfer of ownership to Ajay Singh, the controlling shareholder of SpiceJet. Amidst a financial crisis, Maran and Kal Airways had transferred their entire 35.04 crore equity shares in SpiceJet, amounting to a 58.46 per cent stake in the airline, to its co-founder Singh in February 2015 for an amount of just Rs 2.
Maran and Kal Airways had moved the high court over the share-transfer dispute with SpiceJet, demanding that 18 crore warrants redeemable as equity shares be transferred to them. Since then, the case has seen many turns and twists. Most recently, in March this year, Maran had rejected a Rs 600 crore one-time settlement offer made by SpiceJet to end the dispute.