The Delhi Metro Rail Corporation Wednesday informed the Delhi High Court that the state government is not inclined to provide it over Rs 3,500 crore towards equity for payment of the arbitral award which was passed in favour of Reliance Infrastructure-owned Delhi Metro Express Private Limited.
The DMRC submitted the Delhi government has said that shareholders cannot be held liable for payments arising out of disputes or contractual defaults, and that the Corporation may raise money from the open market or externally aided funds or as loan from the central government to meet this liability.
Attorney General R Venkataramani, representing the DMRC and the Centre, informed Justice Yashwant Varma that the matter is under active deliberation by the central government and hoped the issue will be resolved by January 16, when the meeting of the board of directors of the Corporation is likely to be held.
Taking note of the statement made by the law officer, the high court listed the matter for further hearing on January 19.
The submissions were made by the DMRC in a pending application of the Delhi Airport Metro Express Private Limited (DAMEPL) which said DMRC paid it only Rs 166.44 crore on March 14, 2022 and sought a direction for payment of the remaining Rs 4427.41 crore.
The AG apprised the high court that the Delhi government has, in a December 21, 2022 letter, informed the DMRC that “it is not inclined to provide such money of Rs 3565.64 crore towards equity, the purpose of which is solely to pay the arbitral amount with interest”.
“This is very unusual what is happening and these are unusual circumstances. We thought that GNCTD (Delhi government) will cooperate with us….,” he said.
He said the central government was seriously considering the matter and, if the Delhi government continues to not participate in equity contribution, the Centre will take it to the logical conclusion.