The Supreme Court has given the Delhi High Court a three-month deadline to decide on the issue of outstanding payment of Rs 4,500 crore to Reliance Infra, after it noted that prima facie directions from the apex court to pay the arbitral award was disobeyed by Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC).
The top court noted that the law for executing arbitral awards is not different for government or government-controlled entities and maintained that the Delhi HC has been adjourning proceedings from time to time and directed the court to take the issue to its "logical conclusion".
In March 2022, the Supreme Court had upheld the the 2017 arbitration award by Delhi Airport Metro Express Private Limited (DAMEPL), which totaled almost to Rs 4,500 crore. Despite the SC affirming the arbitral judgement, Reliance Infra alleged that the DMRC had not made the required payments.
Reliance Infra claims that DMRC is in contemptuous defiance of SC orders and said this "circus needs to end". It has pushed for a payment timeline, claiming that in the absence of clarity, "someone has to go to jail." Additionally, the company also asked for an undertaking from the DMRC's managing director.
The SC on Monday declined to grant four more weeks to the Centre and gave a deadline till December 14 to provide clarification on the Rs 4,500 crore payment, since the DMRC has "already had enough time". The Court forewarned that in the event of noncompliance, it will take a "very serious view".
Earlier, the court had sent a notice to the DMRC seeking a response by December 12. Similarly, the Delhi High Court had also given the DMRC till December 12 to come up with a strategy to refund the unpaid sum of an arbitral award in DAMEPL's favour. DAMEPL is an infrastructural division of Reliance.
The SC in last hearing reprimanded the Centre, saying that while on one hand it promotes India as a centre for arbitration with grandiose speeches, on the other side it refuses to uphold arbitral awards upheld by the SC.
