'HC Must Assign Another Judge,' Says SC Declining Kalanithi Maran's Plea Against Delhi HC Verdict

A Supreme Court bench led by Chief Justice of India D Y Chandrachud rejected a petition by Kalanithi Maran and Kal Airways challenging the order passed by the Delhi High Court. The Delhi High Court set aside an arbitral award asking Spicejet to refund Rs 579 crore with interest to the media baron and his firm.

New Delhi:The Supreme Court on Friday rejected a plea by Kalanithi Maran and Kal Airways challenging the order passed by the Delhi High Court, which set aside an arbitral award asking SpiceJet, the low-cost carrier, to refund Rs 579 crore with interest to the media baron and his firm.

A bench led by Chief Justice of India D Y Chandrachud made it clear that the court will not interfere with the High Court order and declined to accept the submissions of senior advocate Abhishek Singhvi, who was appearing for Maran and his firm. "No, no...we will not interfere. Let it go back (to the High Court)," said the bench.

The apex court was also critical of the single-judge bench judgment of the High Court. "All that we can say.... about the single judge filling up 250 pages is not writing a judgment under section 34 (of the Arbitration and Conciliation Act)”, said the apex court. Section 34 of the Act deals with applications for setting aside the arbitral awards.

Terming it atrocious, the CJI said, “Let us not make any observations about this single judge. Where has he even applied his mind?" The apex court made it clear that it was in agreement with the reasoning of the division bench, sending it back to a single judge to decide the case afresh.

"The order has to be carefully articulated. On the other hand, the judge must apply mind to the grounds of challenge and then deduce if interference is warranted," the CJI said. Declining to entertain Maran’s plea, the apex court said the Delhi High Court should now assign the case to a judge other than the single judge who was assigned the case.

In July last year, a single judge bench of the Delhi High Court upheld the arbitral award asking Spicejet promoter Ajay Singh to refund Rs 579 crore plus interest to Maran and his company Kal Airways. The award was granted by the arbitration tribunal on July 20, 2018.

In May this year, a division bench of the High Court, while dealing with an intra-court appeal against the order, set aside the single-judge bench order that had upheld the arbitral award.

The division bench allowed the appeals of Singh and SpiceJet against the single judge bench order and remanded the matter back to the court concerned to consider the petitions challenging the arbitral award afresh. The matter is regarding a share transfer dispute.