On Tuesday, the Madras High Court has demobilized a petition by SpiceJet Limited, challenging an order upon directing winding up of the company and takeover of its assets by the official liquidator. A single judge of the court passed the order as the airline failed to pay its debt to a Switzerland-based company.
After rejecting the appeal, a division bench of Justice Paresh Upadhyay and Justice Sathi Kumar Sukumara Kurup suspended the order till January 28 to enable the airline to move a further appeal before the Supreme Court.
The issue pertains to a plea moved by a stock corporation registered under the laws of Switzerland Credit Suisse AG. As per the company, SpiceJet had availed of the services of SR Technics, Switzerland, for maintenance, repair and overhauling of aircraft engines, modules, components, assemblies and parts which are mandatory for its operations.
A 10-year contract was signed between the companies on November 24, 2011. SR Technics had raised seven invoices and the same was acknowledged by SpiceJet from time to time by issuing certificates of acceptance in relation to the bills of exchange.
Meanwhile, SR Technics entered into a financing agreement with Credit Suisse AG on September 26, 2012 and assigned all its present and future rights to receive payments to the petitioner. Thereafter, the petitioner made repeated requests to SpiceJet to make payments under the various invoices. Since it had not honoured its commitment, the petitioner issued statutory notice under the Companies Act.
Since the notice did not evoke any response, the petitioner moved the present plea for liquidation and winding up of SpiceJet.
