In a relief to SpiceJet Ltd, the Supreme Court on Friday suspended the Madras High Court's order on winding-up of the airline company for three weeks time in order to allow the carrier to resolve its issues with regard to non-payment of unpaid dues to the tune of $24.01 million to Swiss stock corporation Credit Suisse AG.
A bench presided over by Chief Justice N V Ramana, however, told the company if it doesn't want to run airlines, the court would declare it insolvent and order its liquidation.
The HC had stayed the operation of its order, including the publication of the winding-up order for SpiceJet, till Friday so as to allow the airline to move the top court.
Senior counsel Harish Salve, appearing for SpiceJet, told the bench that the airline wants three weeks time as it is trying to “work something out” with the Swiss firm.
Senior counsel K V Vishwanathan, appearing for Credit Suisse, agreed on an adjournment, but he contended that the current offer over dues made by the airline was “not even worth mentioning.”
Credit Suisse was not opposed to the adjournment provided SpiceJet made a “serious offer” and stuck to the timeline strictly, he said.
On this, the CJI slammed the airline for its conduct, by asking, “Do you want to run the show or close it? Why don’t you produce your financial statements? This is not the way to run an airline... this is a serious matter. If they don’t want to run the airline, then we will declare it insolvency and direct it for liquidation."
The airline company has challenged the Madras High Court's decision which had on December 7 upheld its single judge’s order to wind up the company.
However, the HC had extended the interim stay till Friday as the air carrier had already deposited $5 million in the court.
The court had ruled in favour of Credit Suisse, a Zurich-based company, which was assigned the right to receive the payments due to SR Technics.
Watch the latest DH Videos here:
(Published 28 January 2022, 08:38 IST)
JOIN US