Jet-Sahara dispute: HC to give ruling on Friday

Mumbai: India’s second-biggest domestic airline by passengers flown in the March quarter, Jet Airways (India) Ltd, and Sahara India Commercial Corp. Ltd, or SICCL, are engaged in last-minute negotiations to reach an out-of-court settlement, even as the Bombay high court on Wednesday postponed a final judgement to Friday.
On 26 March, SICCL filed an application with the high court claiming that Jet Airways had defaulted on payments towards the purchase of Air Sahara, and had sought permission to seize Jet’s assets.
SCCL’s was demanding the original price of Rs2,000 crore for the airline it had sold to Jet, instead of the re-negotiated price of Rs1,450 crore. Jet Airways bought Sahara Airline Ltd, which operated Air Sahara, in April 2007 and later rebranded it JetLite.
Jet said it had paid SICCL money in instalments after making deductions for liabilities from before the completion of the acquisition.
The court on Wednesday asked both the parties to try and reach such a settlement and give their written submissions, if any, by Thursday.
The Press Trust of India reported on Wednesday that Fali S. Nariman, counsel for SICCL, ruled out an out-of-court settlement between the two sides. However, a senior SCCL executive said the company was still open to such a settlement.
“We are willing to opt for an out-of-court settlement but for that (Naresh) Goyal (founder chairman of Jet Airways) will have to come with a concrete proposal,” he said on condition of anonymity.
Jet Airways and SCCL are bringing in legal counsel to settle the dispute, a person close to the development said. “Since the court has reserved its judgement for 8 May, both parties have less time to sort it out,” he added, requesting anonymity.
06/05/09 P.R. Sanjai/Livemint

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Categories: Jet Airways May 2009