SC upholds arbitral award against DMRC,big win for Anil Ambani firm

The Supreme Court on Thursday upheld the 2017 arbitration award in favor of the Anil Ambani's unit. The arbitration tribunal award is worth over 46.6 billion rupees ($632 million) including interest, according to Reliance Infrastructure's annual report. The Court has dismissed a plea by the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) and upheld an arbitral award in favour of debt-laden Reliance Infrastructure in connection with the Delhi Airport Express Metro case.

The case is related to a 2008 agreement between the two entities for the construction and operation of the Delhi Airport Metro. However, the contract was terminated by Reliance Infra in 2012. DMRC had initially invoked an arbitration clause in the case, but the arbitration tribunal had directed DMRC to pay Rs 2,800 crore along with interest to Reliance Infra in 2017.A single-judge bench of the Delhi High Court had upheld the arbitration order in favour of Reliance Infra in 2018. However, the arbitration award was set aside by a division bench of the Delhi High Court in 2019.

Promoter Reliance Infra moved the Supreme Court and challenge the previous decision given by the high court. The Supreme Court has now overturned the previous order and asked DMRC to honour the arbitral award. Soon after the top court’s order, Reliance Infra shares rose nearly 5 per cent on the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE). The verdict is a crucial victory for Ambani as his telecom firms are in bankruptcy and he is contesting a personal insolvency case lodged by the country's largest lender.