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Kalanithi Maran declines SpiceJet’s peace offer on share transfer dispute

Kalanithi Maran, the former promoter of SpiceJet, and his firm KAL Airways have declined the olive branch offered by the air carrier to end a prolonged share transfer dispute among them. Appearing before a Bench led by Chief Justice of India N.V. Ramana, senior advocate Maninder Singh, for Maran, informed the court that his client had refused SpiceJet’s offer of a total ₹600 crore in cash to settle the dispute with no room for further litigation.

Singh, on the court’s query, clarified that his client had also declined an alternative offer made by the airline to disburse a certain amount, ₹100 crore, from the bank guarantee of ₹270 crore, to Maran and to fast track the litigation. “Both offers are declined,” Singh submitted. He explained that the total amount owed was about ₹920 crore.
File photo of Kalanidhi Maran

“Then we will hear the matter,” the CJI reacted to Singh’s submissions. The court scheduled the next hearing on March 2. The case concerns a plea by Maran and KAL to lift a November 6, 2020 order of stay on a Delhi High Court direction to the airline to deposit ₹243 crore as interest on the prinicipal amount of ₹578 crore involved in the dispute. Senior advocate Mukul Rohatgi, for the airline, had in the last hearing said that out of the principal amount of ₹578 crore awarded in arbitration, SpiceJet had already paid ₹308 crore in cash and deposited a bank guarantee of ₹270 crore.

Rohatgi had offered to pay the bank guarantee equivalent amount of ₹270 crore in cash and top it up with additional ₹22 crore, aggregating the total payout to ₹600 crore as full and final settlement of all disputes between the parties. KAL and Maran had transferred their shareholding to Ajay Singh in December 2014. The dispute relates to non-issuance of warrants and preference shares in favour of Maran.