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Synopsis

The Delhi High Court on Monday directed SpiceJet Managing Director and Chairman Ajay Singh to be “present physically” on the next date of hearing in a case of non-compliance of its 2020 order, wherein he was asked for an affidavit of the company's assets.

The bench of Justice Yogesh Khanna was dealing with an application by Kal Airways and Kalanithi Maran for urgent hearing of its enforcement petition.

The bench issued notice to SpiceJet Ltd. and Ajay Singh and directed them to file an Affidavit disclosing all of their Assets before the next date of hearing i.e. September 5.

Senior Advocate Maninder Singh, on behalf of Kal Airways Pvt. Ltd. and Kalanithi Maran, submitted that Spicejet is not honoring the orders passed by any of the Courts. “Spicejet has earlier too failed to comply with the order passed by this High Court dated 04.11.2020 directing the Spicejet to file its affidavit of disclosure of its Assets which was reaffirmed by later order dated 29.05.2023 passed by this Court and the same is not filed till date. Spicejet is also not even complying with the order of the Hon’ble Supreme Court dated 13.02.2023 reaffirmed by the order dated 07.07.2023. He further submitted that Order XXI Rule 41 (iii) of Code of Civil Procedure clearly provides that the Hon’ble Court may for a period not exceeding 3 months pass an order of arrest of the Judgement Debtor for not complying with the order to file Affidavit of Assets”, he submitted.

On the contrary, Senior Advocate Sandeep Sethi appearing for SpiceJet and its MD Ajay Singh submitted that there is no reason for allowing early hearing at this stage and the matter can be taken up on September 5 which is the fixed date.

To this, the court said that the decree holder is not left with any other option but to move an early hearing application as the judgment debtor is not complying with the orders passed by the courts and the judgment debtor should have filed its affidavit of disclosure of assets till date.

Taking note of the submissions, the court observed that admittedly the affidavit of disclosure of assets was not filed by the judgment debtor despite directions of the court given twice.

It is to be noted that the Supreme Court vide order dated February 13, 2023 had directed Spicejet to pay 75 Crores to the decree holders i.e., Kal Airways and Kalanithi Maran within a period of 3 months towards its interest liability under the Arbitral Award. It had also made it clear in its order that in the event of failure by Spicejet to pay, the entire award would become executable in its entirety in favour of Kal Airways and Kalanithi Maran.

Senior Advocate Sandeep Sethi along with Advocate Atul Sharma appeared on behalf of SpiceJet and Ajay Singh, and Senior Advocate Maninder Singh along with Ms. Nandini Gore- Senior Partner, Ms. Sonia Nigam- Principal Associate & Mr. Yash Dubey- Associate and Mr. Akarsh Sharma- Associate Advocates from Karanjawala & Co. appeared on behalf of the Kal Airways Pvt. Ltd. and Kalanithi Maran.

Case Title: Kalanithi Maran v. M/S Spicejet Ltd. & Anr.