Credit Suisse notified the Supreme Court on Friday that SpiceJet has cleared its outstanding dues and is no longer a defaulter. The court deferred the case to the end of July on behalf of the bank’s request. Going forward, the court will monitor whether SpiceJet has been paying its monthly installments on time or not at the next hearing.
The Supreme Court took exception to SpiceJet’s failure to settle its dues during the previous hearing. This was done after Credit Suisse said that it had only received USD 13.75 million of the $15 million quoted by 15 February. Due to this, the court had ordered the airline to clear all pending payments by 15 March and pay USD 1.25 million to Credit Suisse as per the stated date.
Also, the court noted reports at previous hearings which indicated that SpiceJet which is in partnership with Busy Bee Aviation Private Limited, had submitted a bid to acquire the bankrupt airline Go First. The court’s warning that further delays would not be accepted questioned SpiceJet chairman and managing director Ajay Singh's capacity to finance this said acquisition while neglecting the airline's overdue payments.
To initiate contempt proceedings against SpiceJet and Singh, Credit Suisse had filed a petition in March 2023. The latter had alleged deliberate non-compliance with court directives and failure to settle outstanding dues.
Also, in August, the court issued a notice to SpiceJet in the case, wherein, it gave the airline until September to start paying USD 1 million a month for six months. Noting that SpiceJet was behind on its monthly payments by $3 million, this was also supposed to be followed by monthly payments of USD 500,000.
If we look at the dispute, it goes back when SpiceJet was under the ownership of Kalanithi Maran in the year 2011. The former entered into a 10-year aircraft servicing agreement with SR Technics, a Swiss MRO service provider. Thereafter SR Technics gave all rights to receive payments under the SpiceJet deal to Credit Suisse in September 2012. However, the airline failed to make payments of over USD 24 million. This led Credit Suisse to file a winding-up petition against SpiceJet in the Madras High Court in 2021.
