A bench comprising Justices L Nageswara Rao and S Ravindra Bhatt on Thursday quashed a Delhi High Court order that had set aside the 2017 arbitral award in favour of Delhi Airport Metro Express Pvt Ltd (DAMEPL) – a special purpose vehicle set up by Reliance Energy (later renamed as Reliance Infrastructure) and Spanish company Construcciones Auxiliar de Ferrocarriles to build and operate Delhi Metro’s airport express line.
The amount includes about Rs 2,800 crore as the principal component of the award plus interest.
DMRC had invoked the arbitration clause against DAMEPL after the latter in 2012 terminated an agreement signed in 2008 to build, operate and maintain the airport express line. Both sides then filed claims and counter-claims against each other.
Following the differences, Reliance Energy stopped its operations of the airport line on June 30, 2013, and handed it over to DMRC the next day.
Reliance Infra had won in the arbitration proceedings on May 11, 2017, and got a termination payment of Rs 2,782.33 crore, but a division bench of the Delhi High Court set it aside after a single judge refused to interfere with the award.
Reliance Infra went to the top court in appeal against the division bench ruling and won. “Appeal filed by DAMEPL is allowed and the judgment of the division bench of the High Court is set aside. The appeal…filed by DMRC is dismissed,” the top court said in its order.
In a statement, Reliance Infrastructure said the proceeds will be used for debt reduction. “The Supreme Court upheld the arbitral award in favour of Reliance Infrastructure Limited’s subsidiary DAMEPL… The proceeds from the arbitral award to be utilised for debt reduction,” it said.
DMRC, in a statement issued through its executive director, corporate communications, Anuj Dayal, said it was “analysing the judgement for future course of action”. DAMEPL had sought Rs 3,470 crore as compensation with interest from the DRMC.
