Spice Jet to file appeal in Madras HC against its order to wind up airline operation

Spice Jet has announced that it would file an appeal in the Madras High Court against an order of the single bench of the high court directing the airline to wind up its operation.

Justice Subramaniam of the Madras High Court had on Monday ordered the airline company to wind up its operation over its failure to make payments to a Swiss Maintenance, Repair, and Overhaul (MRO) service provider.

The Zurich-based MRO service provider, SR Technics, had claimed that the Spice Jet owes around 24 million US dollars and that it has a ten-year contract with the airline company.

The MRO company had assigned Credit Suisse AG the right to receive payments on behalf of SR Technics and the single bench of the Madras High Court had responded to its appeal and ordered the winding up of Spice Jet.

The order was stayed for three weeks after the airline moved a plea that it deposit USD 5 million with the court in two weeks.

Spice Jet had argued in the court that SR Technics did not possess the approval from the Director-General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) from 2009 to 2015 but the court did not heed to the argument and said that the airline had availed of the services of SR Technics.

The airline company also argued that the Swiss company had made a "fraudulent misinterpretation" of having the DGCA approval and argued that this was against the Indian and other applicable laws and that this has led to the entire agreement pointless or unnecessary.