New Delhi:The Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) has once again failed to honour the Delhi High Court order directing it to pay a Rs 4,500 crore arbitral award to the Reliance Infrastructure subsidiary's Delhi Airport Metro Express Private Limited (DAMEPL) within four weeks.
In the last six months, this is the third contempt of the High Court order by DMRC. The Delhi High Court, in its last order dated September 6, 2022, had directed DMRC to pay the entire amount of Arbitral Award of Rs 4,500 crore due to DAMEPL in four weeks' time i.e. by 4 October, yet it failed to comply with the order of the court as it did not make any payment to DAMEPL as the deadline ended yesterday.
Legal team DAMEPL said that it has been almost 13 months now that the DAMEPL, despite a decree in its favour from the Supreme Court, followed by 3 orders from the Delhi High Court on its execution plea, directing DMRC to make the payment, has been struggling to get its dues from DMRC.
Earlier in March 2022, the Delhi High Court, after hearing the execution plea of DAMEPL, passed an order on March 10, 2022, directing DMRC to pay the entire amount in two equal instalments by April 30 and May 31, 2022. DMRC failed to comply with this order. DAMEPL again approached the Delhi HC to enforce the order dated March 10. The court then passed an order on June 20 directing DMRC to make the full payment by August 5 2022. DMRC failed to comply with this order, too.
In the last order dated 6 September, the court had also directed that if the amount is not paid within four weeks, the court shall be constrained to call the appearance of the Managing Director of the DMRC before the court. The next hearing is scheduled on October 10, 2022.
Earlier, DAMEPL had filed an execution petition in the Delhi HC on September 12, 2021, seeking the court's directions to DMRC to honour the SC order and pay Rs 7,200 crore to the company. DMRC, out of Rs 7,200 crore, has paid only Rs 1,000 crore so far.
The Supreme Court, on September 7, 2021, upheld the arbitration award of Rs 7,200 crore in favour of DAMEPL. In 2008, DAMEPL had entered into a contract with DMRC for running the airport metro line till 2038. As disputes arose between the parties, DAMEPL stopped operating the metro on the airport line and invoked the arbitration clause against DMRC alleging violation of contract and sought a termination fee. (ANI)
