The Delhi High Court ordered the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) to pay Rs 60 crore to Reliance Infrastructure Ltd.’s lenders as part of an arbitral award that the Anil Ambani-led company won earlier this month.
The interim order was passed by Justice Vibhu Bhakru who is hearing an appeal filed by the DMRC against the Rs 2,950-crore arbitral award.
The amount will be paid to Axis Bank Ltd., the lead lender in the Delhi airport metro project, on behalf Reliance Infrastructure. The Anil Ambani-promoted company will have to furnish a bank guarantee of Rs 65 crore though.
Under the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs-approved guidelines issued by NITI Aayog last year, even if public sector companies challenge an arbitral award, they are expected to pay 75 percent of the amount against a bank guarantee.
The case will be next heard on July 19.
The arbitral tribunal had held the decision of Reliance Infrastructure’s subsidiary Delhi Airport Metro Express Pvt. Ltd. to terminate its concession agreement for the project four years ago as valid, the company had said in a media statement. It intended to pay back Rs 1,900 crore to its lenders from the award.
A three-member tribunal bench, chosen from a DMRC-nominated panel, had unanimously ruled in favour of Reliance Infrastructure after hearing the case for about three-and-a-half years, the statement had said.
(With inputs from PTI)
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