DMRC Requests More Time To Pay Reliance Infra In Arbitration Case

In an affidavit filed with the Delhi High Court, Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) has revealed that it has total funds worth Rs. 5800.93 crore currently available with it, as on December 17, 2021. It has requested more time to arrange the payable amount passed in the order of arbitral dispute with Reliance Infrastructure’s Delhi Airport Metro Express Pvt Ltd (DAMEPL).

DMRC has already deposited Rs. 1,000 crore in an escrow account with the Delhi HC, as the court directed it in its last hearing on December 6, 2021. It agreed to deposit the amount within the next 48 hours.

DMRC needs to pay an arbitral award of around Rs. 7,200 crore to Reliance Infrastructure subsidiary DAMEPL as per the order of the court.

The next hearing on the execution petition filed by DAMEPL is on December 22.

In the last hearing that took place on December 6, Delhi HC directed the DMRC to file an affidavit to disclose the total amount payable including the interest, as per the award.

So far, there have been six hearings in the Delhi HC on the Execution Petition of DAMEPL. But DMRC is yet to clarify any details related to the payment to DAMEPL. The Reliance Infra company’s counsel Rajiv Nayar mentioned that this delay in the payment of award by DMRC, a govt of India undertaking, is creating an additional interest burden of Rs. 2.0 crore per day on the taxpayers’ money and the interest burden of DMRC has already increased by Rs. 200 crore.

As per DAMEPL’s execution petition, out of the total amount of money-decree of over Rs. 7,250 crore against DMRC, Rs. 2,945 crore is the principal amount and the rest Rs. 4,305 crore include pre and post award interests.

After the hearing on December 6, the plea sought “an order of execution of the award dated May 11, 2017, passed by the Arbitral Tribunal and directing the Judgment Debtor to pay to the Decree Holder a sum of Rs. 7,045.41  crore as on the date of filing of the present petition, with interest at the rate of SBI PLR 2 per cent on â‚¹ 4499.37  crore from September 11, 2021, till the date of payment of the said sum, and interest at the rate of 11 per cent on Rs. 210.16  crore from September 11, 2021, till the date of payment of the said sum,” reported NDTV.