NEW DELHI: The Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) on Wednesday apprised Delhi High Court that the Delhi Government has refused to contribute its share towards the unpaid dues of arbitral award to Delhi Airport Metro Express Private Ltd (DAMEPL), a subsidiary of Anil Ambani’s Reliance Infrastructure.
In an affidavit, DMRC stated that as per the letter of the city government, it is not inclined to offer Rs 3565.64 crore towards equity for payment of the arbitral sum with interest. The Delhi government had also conveyed that the DMRC shareholders cannot be held liable for payments arising out of disputes or contractual defaults.
Before a single-judge bench Yashwant Sharma, the Centre and DMRC, represented by Attorney General R. Venkataramani, informed that the issue is being actively considered and deliberated by the relevant authorities, and that they anticipate a resolution by January 16. It was further submitted that DMRC had requested both the stakeholders of Delhi Metro - Union Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs and the Delhi government- to subscribe to the equity share capital of DMRC to meet the liability arising out of the May 11, 2017 arbitral award.
“This is very unusual what is happening and these are unusual circumstances. We thought that GNCTD (Delhi government) will cooperate with us...,” he said. Senior Advocate Jaideep Gupta, appearing on behalf of DAMEPL, pointed out that there is no assurance in the matter of payment. “A date has to come by when they will pay. Difficulty is the very same lack of commitment which is the issue in the SLP before the Supreme Court. Whole point is there was a deadline which was taken away,” he argued.
The court listed the matter for next hearing on January 19. The Delhi High Court has been dealing with a petition filed by the DAMEPL seeking execution of the arbitration order from May 2017. Total arbitration amount in the case is stated to be Rs 7,200 crore.
On March 10 last year, the high court had directed the DMRC to pay the over Rs 4,600 crore arbitral award along with interest to DAMEPL in two equal installments within two months. The first and second installments were to be paid on or before April 30, 2022 and May 31, 2022, respectively.