Supreme Court gives SpiceJet three weeks in liquidation case

India’s Supreme Court has given SpiceJet (SG, Delhi Int’l) three weeks to settle its financial issues with Credit Suisse, opting to postpone for this period a liquidation order against the airline which the Madras High Court confirmed in early January, local media reported.

The order relates to a USD24.1 million debt that the investment bank had taken over from Swiss maintenance firm SR Technics. The Supreme Court had agreed to hear on January 28 a final appeal SpiceJet had filed against it.

At the January 28 hearing, the indebted budget airline’s senior lawyer Mukul Rohatgi requested three more weeks to try to resolve the issue with Credit Suisse out of court. KV Vishwanathan, appearing for the Swiss firm, agreed to the adjournment.

SpiceJet has argued that SR Technics did not possess the approval from India’s Directorate General of Civil Aviation for the period in question, 2009 to 2015, but the Madras court insisted that the airline had still availed of its services. The Supreme Court judge agreed, saying, as quoted by Asianet News, “This is not the way you run airlines.”

According to the newspaper BusinessLine, senior management at the Airports Authority of India met on January 27 to discuss the issue, in relation to SpiceJet’s outstanding debts to the state-run airport operator. The body is now likely to invoke the carrier’s bank guarantees so it can recover the debt, amounting to over INR1.2 billion rupees (USD16 million), to cushion itself against any adverse ruling at the Supreme Court, a source told the daily.