The Supreme Court has admitted a Special Leave Petition filed by Delhi Airport Metro Express Pvt Ltd (DAMEPL), the SPV of Reliance Infrastructure, a part of Anil Ambani-led Reliance Group, challenging the judgment of the Delhi High Court setting aside the arbitral award amounting to ₹5,800 crore won by DAMEPL against Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC).
The Supreme Court has also issued a notice to DMRC. “A short notice was also issued to DMRC on DAMEPL’s plea for interim relief, so that DMRC continues to service the debt of DAMEPL pending the disposal of the SLP by the Supreme Court,” RInfra said on Monday.
DAMEPL has borrowed over ₹1,600 crore from 11 banks, including Axis Bank, UCO Bank, Punjab & Sind Bank, Andhra Bank, and Central Bank of India.
In March last year, the Delhi High Court directed DMRC to take over the servicing of all debt liabilities of DAMEPL and make payments to banks to avoid the account from turning non-performing.
DAMEPL had moved the Supreme Court after a Division Bench of the Delhi High Court set aside an order of the Single Judge Bench upholding the arbitral award in favour of DAMEPL.
Metro rail project
DAMEPL was awarded a project for construction of the High Speed Metro Rail Line in 2008.
In 2012, the company exited the project claiming that operations of the line were not viable due to defects in the civil structures, constructed by DMRC.
After hearing the case for almost four years, the arbitral tribunal, in May 2017, ruled in favour of DAMEPL directing DMRC to pay ₹2,950 crore as compensation, along with interest, to the RInfra unit.
The order was then challenged by DMRC in the Delhi High Court. Reliance Infrastructure then said it stood to get ₹5,060 crore from the award which the company would “entirely utilise to reduce its consolidated debt”.