SC rejects Metro plea over payment to Reliance unit
Supreme Court on Monday refused to interfere with a Delhi high court order directing Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) to pay ₹60 crore to Delhi Airport Metro Express Pvt. Ltd (DAMEPL), a subsidiary of Reliance Infrastructure Ltd.
The vacation bench of Justice DY Chandrachud and Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul on Monday granted DMRC a week’s more time to pay the money.
The court was hearing an appeal against a May 30 order of the Delhi high court, directing DMRC to pay the interest amount to DAMEPL.
DAMEPL had approached the Delhi high court seeking early payment of an arbitration award it had won against the DMRC for termination of concession agreements for the metro express project.
On May 11, an arbitral award amounting to ₹2,950 crore was passed in favour of DAMPEL. The total compensation (including interest) would amount to ₹4,670 crore.
The plea was filed under Section 9 of the Arbitration and Conciliation Act, 1996, for payment of ₹3,502 crore, which constitutes 75% of the total award amount.
The high court order came after the Anil Ambani-owned company approached the high court seeking 75% payment of arbitration in pursuance to the 2016 guidelines of NITI Aayog.
Applicability of the guidelines was opposed by DMRC, which told the court that the 90-day period to challenge the award had not lapsed.
DAMEPL had participated in a public private partnership (PPP) project with DMRC in 2008, to jointly develop the 22.7 km-line connecting the New Delhi railway station with airport terminal T3. But operations were suspended in July 2012 after DAMEPL complained of construction defects in the rail lines built by DMRC.
Rinfra terminated the agreement in October 2012 and the matter went into arbitration as DMRC did not accept the termination of the agreement.
DMRC built the infrastructure and DAMEPL brought in the rolling stock and was supposed to run the express metro line for 30 years.
Senior counsel P. Chidambram, appearing for DAMEPL, said they were paying ₹60 lakh interest per day and had already paid ₹117 crore.