Supreme Court Asks Spicejet To Pay $1 Million Per Month To Credit Suisse Towards Repayment Of Dues
Credit Suisse Ag & Anr. V/S Ajay Singh & Anr [CONTEMPT PETITION (C) No. 822/2023 in SLP(C) No. 1046/2022]
The Supreme Court ordered the low cost airline SpiceJet to pay USD 1 million per month for six months to global investment bank and financial services firm Credit Suisse AG towards repayment of dues.
The bench of Justices Vikram Nath and Ahsanuddin Amanullah said that the arrears would be cleared in the next six months by paying installment of $ 500,000 US Dollars every month and in addition thereto regular installment of 500,000 US Dollars would also be paid. In effect, 1 million US Dollars to be paid every month for the next six months so that the seventh month it would be only the regular installment for that month.
The court directed SpiceJet Chairperson and Managing Director, Ajay Singh continue to remain personally present in court for the next hearing on October 20.
The dispute arose after the two parties, in May last year, entered into an agreement to resolve a payment dispute concerning the airline’s failure to pay dues to the tune of $20 million to a Swiss aircraft maintenance company, SR Technics.
On August 14, the bench, while issuing contempt notices to SpiceJet Chairman Ajay Singh and SpiceJet, had noted the submission of the Swiss firm that the court had granted indulgence and withdrawn the airline from liquidation only in view of the consent terms dated May 23, 2022 by which USD 500,000 was to be paid every month by the low cost carrier to the company from July 15, 2020.
“It was submitted that, though as of now more than 6.5 million US dollars has to be deposited, but only a little over 2 million US dollars has been deposited,” the bench had noted the submission of counsel appearing for Credit Suisse in its August 14 order.
SpiceJet and Credit Suisse had told the Supreme Court on August 18, 2022 about the resolution of their financial dispute which led to the withdrawal of an appeal by the low-cost airline against a Madras High Court order for its winding up due to alleged non-payment of dues to the Swiss firm.
