Supreme Court agrees to hear SpiceJet plea against Madras HC order

The Supreme Court has agreed to hear budget airline carrier Spicejet’s plea against the Madras High Court order to wind up the company. Senior advocate Mukul Rohatgi, who was also the former Attorney General of India, mentioned this plea for urgent hearing and argued that the matter needs to be heard urgently.
 
Rohatgi also added that if the matter was not heard urgently, the proceedings to wind up the company will begin. After this, the Chief Justice of India (CJI) agreed to hear the matter. The matter is likely to be heard on Thursday.
 
The Madras High Court had dismissed SpiceJet’s appeal against admission of its winding up on the Swiss financial services bellwether Credit Suisse AG’s petition earlier this month. The court had agreed to put a stay on the operation of winding up till January 28 so that the budget airline carrier can approach the Supreme Court.
 
Madras High Court ordered the admission of SpiceJet on December 6 upon the petition filed by Credit Suisse AG. Credit Suisse AG had alleged that SpiceJet is unable to pay the debts owed to the firm. The airline availed aircraft maintenance, repairs and other services by SR Technics in Switzerland through an agreement that had a decade-long lifetime in 2011.
 
Both these parties signed a supplemental agreement in 2021 which allowed them to repay the amount raised by SR Technics. SR Technics raised invoices, seven corresponding Bills of Exchange and the acknowledgement of debts, which later became a matter of contention before the high court.
 
Credit Suisse AG was assigned the rights to receive payments due to SRT in 2012 via a financial agreement. This agreement also allowed the third party to receive payments from SpiceJet under the seven invoices raised by SRT. The Swiss financial services firm noted that SpiceJet did not repay the amount due as per the invoices despite repeated requests.
 
(With inputs from Aneesha Mathur)