CJI-led bench tears into 2021 Supreme Court order in favour of Reliance Infra

NEW DELHI: Anil Ambani‘s Reliance Infrastructure suffered a crushing blow on Wednesday as Supreme Court snatched away the Rs 2,782 crore arbitral award in favour of its subsidiary, Delhi Airport Metro Express Pvt Ltd (DAMEPL), which has swelled to Rs 8,000 crore with interest. The award against Delhi Metro “suffered from the vice of perversity and patent illegality”, it ruled.
SC has usually been reluctant to interfere with arbitral awards but a bench of Chief Justice D Y Chandrachud and Justices B R Gavai and Surya Kant justified the “harsh step” by saying it was necessitated by the “grave miscarriage of justice” that marked the apex court’s earlier verdict which resulted in “undeserved windfall” to DAMEPL.
Reacting to the verdict, the company said, “Reliance Infrastructure wishes to clarify that the order dated April 10 passed by the Supreme Court does not impose any liability on Reliance Infrastructure and the company has not received any money from DMRC/DAMEPL under the arbitral award.”
The setback for Reliance Infra, just when it had seemed set to walk away with a huge pile of cash, was in keeping with the rollercoaster trajectory the dispute has taken since DAMEPL refused to continue operating the Airport Express, leaving Delhi Metro saddled with a project which, despite its rich potential, had not taken off.
DAMEPL to refund any amount it withdrew: SC
Hailing the SC verdict quashing the arbitral award granted to Delhi Airport Metro Express Pvt Ltd (DAMEPL) as “historic”, Union urban affairs minister Hardeep Puri congratulated DMRC on achieving the “landmark verdict”.”Our public sector utilities are strong & resolute in delivery of public service under the firm leadership of PM Modi and remain steadfast in pursuit of fairness & justice,” he said on X.
Reliance Infrastructure says the company has not received any money from DMRC/DAMEPL under the arbitral award. The setback for Reliance Infra, just when it seemed set to walk away with a huge pile of cash, was in keeping with the rollercoaster trajectory the dispute has taken since DAMEPL suspended operations of Airport Express, leaving Delhi Metro with a project which, despite its rich potential, had not taken off.
After operations on Airport Express were suspended, DAMEPL took the matter to arbitration as per its contract with DMRC. The arbitral tribunal comprising A P Mishra, S S Khurana and H L Bajaj asked DMRC to pay Rs 2,782 crore with interest to DAMEPL. A single judge of Delhi high court upheld the order but it was reversed by an HC division bench led by Justice Sanjiv Khanna (now an SC judge). DAMEPL had cited non-rectification of defects on track and civil work by DMRC. On Sept 19, 2021, an SC bench of Justices L N Rao and S R Bhat upheld the award, after which DAMEPL started execution proceedings before HC.
Critical of the SC’s 2021 judgment for interfering with a well-considered decision of division bench of Delhi HC, the bench of Justices Chandrachud, Gavai and Kant allowed DMRC’s curative petition, discontinued the execution proceedings and ordered return of the amount deposited by DMRC.It also said if any amount deposited was withdrawn by DAMEPL, then that would be refunded to DMRC.