The company of Anil Ambani ie Reliance Infrastructure will get a total of Rs 4,500 crore from Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC). A termination fee of Rs 2,800 crore had also been demanded by the company from the DMRC alleging that it had broken the contract. In this case, the DMRC initiated a mediation process, after which the matter continued to circulate in the courts. Today, the Supreme Court upheld the company's claim and ordered the DMRC to reimburse the money and interest, and damages.
The matter pertains to an agreement signed between Delhi Metro Rail Corporation and Reliance Infrastructure in 2008. An agreement has been signed between the two to build Delhi Airport Express on the basis of Build Operate Transfer (BOT). Reliance Infra accused Delhi Metro of violating the agreement and scrapped it and demanded money to end it. In this case, the DMRC used the condition attached to it to initiate mediation in the matter.
The Arbitration Tribunal issued an order against Delhi Metro Rail Corporation in 2017 in the matter. The tribunal asked him to pay the money including damages and interest amount and also an arbitration award of Rs 2,800 crore. The court order was also backed by one bench of judges in the Delhi High Court in 2018 and asked the DMRC to pay compensation.
In 2019, the Division Bench of the Delhi High Court set aside the mediation award, providing assistance to DMRC. The Delhi High Court order was challenged by Reliance Infra in the High Court. However, the order of the SC has brought big relief to the company, as it will be able to repay the loan with money received from the DMRC.
During the hearing of the case, the lawyers of the company had told this to the court. On this, the Supreme Court had restrained the banks from making the company's loan as NPA. After the order of the Supreme Court, the ban on the lenders of the company has been lifted.
The Supreme Court order is important to Anil Ambani as his telecommunications companies are in danger of being declared insolvent. However, he himself is facing bankruptcy charges against the world's largest bank, SBI.
In case of dispute over an agreement, the aggrieved party instead of going to court resorts to the arbitration system i.e. Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR). In this, both the parties argue before the arbitrator, who is a neutral third party, and his order can be enforced through the court.
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