The Supreme Court on Friday dismissed low-cost flyer SpiceJet’s plea to further extend the February 13 deadline for the payment of nearly Rs 578 crore arrears to erstwhile owner Kalanithi Maran saying, the “writ of the court has to be complied with…”.

A bench of Chief Justice D.Y. Chandrachud and Justice P.S. Narasimha turned down the plea of senior advocate Mukul Rohatagi appearing for SpiceJet to extend the deadline. His plea was strongly opposed by senior advocate Maninder Singh, representing Maran.

“There is a battery of lawyers engaged in this case and you know the idea is just to delay compliance with the order of this court. The writ of the court has to be complied with and now they will execute it,” Justice Chandrachud said.

Singh complained that the last order passed for initial payment of Rs 75 crore had also been breached by SpiceJet.

Though Rohatagi said the amount of Rs 75 crore was not a small amount, Justice Chandrachud remarked. “These are all not small parties before us. These are nothing but luxurious litigation.”

Later the court passed the following written order: “The order of this Court dated 13 February 2023 provides a self-operative consequence of the award becoming executable if compliance is not effected. This is a breach in complying with the order.

“No further extension of time can be granted. The award shall become executable in terms of the order. The Miscellaneous Applications are accordingly dismissed....”

The apex court passed the direction while upholding an earlier Delhi HC order that had directed SpiceJet to pay Rs 243 crore to the Marans as interest towards the arbitral award of Rs 578 crore.