Credit Suisse and SpiceJet have been involved in a legal dispute since 2015 (representative)
New Delhi:
SpiceJet said on Monday it would pay $1.5 million to Credit Suisse as demanded by the Supreme Court.
Earlier in the day, the Supreme Court ordered SpiceJet to make the payment by September 15 in a case related to unpaid dues and warned the low-cost airline of unspecified “drastic action” at the next hearing if it failed to do so.
A third of the amount is part of a monthly settlement plan that SpiceJet had previously agreed with Credit Suisse, and the rest is unpaid dues to the bank that have accrued since last year after the airline failed to keep up with the payment schedule.
If SpiceJet fails to pay, the Supreme Court will take “drastic action” at the next hearing on September 22, it said.
“Enough of this mischievous business… We are not bothered even if you die,” one of the two judges said at the hearing, which was attended by SpiceJet chief Ajay Singh.
The airline had previously said the Credit Suisse debt was an old one that predated the current management’s tenure.
Credit Suisse and SpiceJet have been embroiled in a legal dispute since 2015 over the bank’s claim for unpaid dues of about $24 million, which led to the Madras High Court’s order that the airline be wound up in 2021.
Even after agreeing to a settlement plan, the dues were not paid, and in March Credit Suisse approached the Supreme Court to initiate contempt proceedings against SpiceJet and Singh for “willful and willful disobedience” of court orders and failure to pay dues of $4, 5 million.
The court order is the latest setback for cash-strapped SpiceJet, which told a court last month it was “struggling to stay afloat” after it was ordered to pay Rs 100 crores to its former owner, Kalanithi Maran, before the Sept. 10 as part of an arbitration award in a separate case.
In that case, also heard on Monday at a Delhi high court, SpiceJet said it had deposited 625 million rupees of this amount.
The airline said late on Monday that it would make the 1 billion rupee payment to Mr Maran by Tuesday.
(This story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is automatically generated from a syndicated feed.)