SpiceJet Moves Supreme Court Against Delhi HC Refusal To Modify ₹144.51 Crore Deposit Condition In Dispute With Kalanithi Maran
SpiceJet Limited and its chairman, Ajay Singh, have moved the Supreme Court against a Delhi High Court order refusing to allow them to secure ₹144.51 crore due to Kalanithi Maran and Kal Airways by depositing title deeds of SpiceJet's Gurugram property instead of making a cash deposit in their long-running arbitration dispute.
A Bench of Justices Pamidighantam Sri Narasimha and Alok Aradhe will likely hear Spicejet's plea on May 19.
On review petitions filed by SpiceJet and Ajay Singh, the High Court had on May 4, 2026 refused to grant further time or modify its March 18, 2026 requiring deposit of ₹144.51 crore or grant further time for compliance.
The Court held that hostilities in West Asia could not be used to avoid compliance with binding judicial directions, observing, “The hostilities which broke out in February-March, 2026 cannot be used to the advantage of the Review Petitioners and at the cost of repetition, it is made clear that this Court was not prepared to accept the offer given by the Review Petitioners for deposit of the title deeds of the Spicejet‟s Property in lieu of the arbitral amount, as in the opinion of this Court, the said offer could not be a proper compliance of the Orders of the Apex Court.”
Earlier, on February 27, 2026, the Supreme Court had refused to interfere with the Delhi High Court's January 19, 2026 order directing deposit of Rs. 144.51 crore, calling the challenge “an abuse of the process.”
The High Court had also observed that repeated pleas of financial difficulty by SpiceJet amounted to abuse of process, particularly after earlier Supreme Court directions dated February 13, 2023 and July 7, 2023 directing compliance with the arbitral award.
The case arose from a January 2015 Share Sale and Purchase Agreement under which Kalanithi Maran and Kal Airways transferred their 58.46% shareholding in SpiceJet to Ajay Singh for a nominal consideration of Rs. 2 along with commitments for financial support aggregating to Rs. 450 crore.
Disputes later arose over alleged non-compliance with obligations relating to warrants and redeemable preference shares, culminating in an arbitral award dated July 20, 2018 directing SpiceJet and Ajay Singh to pay over Rs. 308 crore along with interest to Maran and Kal Airways.