Kalanithi Maran and KAL Airways informed the Supreme Court on Monday that SpiceJet’s offer of Rs 600 crore towards full and final settlement of the share transfer dispute was not acceptable.
Senior advocate Maninder Singh, representing KAL Airways, submitted before a bench headed by Chief Justice N V Ramana that it was not possible for his clients to consider the offer proposed by SpiceJet airlines.
The bench, also comprising Justices A S Bopanna and Hima Kohli, asked if none of the two offers proposed by SpiceJet was acceptable. Replying in the negative, Singh added that as per the arbitral award SpiceJet has to pay them Rs 920 crore.
Singh submitted that he could take the court through the calculations as per the arbitral award from the pleadings itself in support of the arguments.
The top court has scheduled the matter for further hearing on March 2.
On February 10, the Supreme Court had asked Kalanithi Maran, the former promoter of SpiceJet, to consider the full and final settlement offer made by SpiceJet to end the dispute in a share transfer matter.
In a statement SpiceJet, after the hearing in the top court, said: “SpiceJet has offered to pay Rs 600 crore in cash in the share transfer case with its former promoter Kalanithi Maran and his firm KAL Airways for a full and final settlement of all disputes. Out of the principal amount of Rs 578 crore awarded in arbitration, SpiceJet has already paid Rs 308 crore in cash and deposited a bank guarantee of Rs 270 crore.”
SpiceJet’s counsel had proposed to pay the bank guarantee equivalent amount of Rs 270 crore in cash and top it up with additional Rs 22 crore aggregating the total pay-out to Rs 600 crore as full and final settlement of all disputes between the parties.
Maran and his firm, KAL Airways, had urged the top court to lift the stay on a Delhi High Court order asking the low-cost airline to deposit Rs 243 crore as interest on the amount of Rs 579 crore in the dispute. In November 2020, the top court stayed the high court order.
Maran sought the stay to be lifted to secure the decreed amount — refund amount awarded and interest — from SpiceJet.