BackVijay Mallya case: Banks to present stand on liquor baron’s repayment plan
SC will also hear a public litigation on providing relief to drought-hit states, a case which could be significant given the increasing water crisis in the country
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New Delhi: Spread across three courts, cases regarding liquor baron Vijay Mallya’s debt, Kalanithi Maran’s KAL Airways’ share dispute and Arvind Kejriwal’s defamation charge will be heard on Thursday.
The Supreme Court will also hear a public litigation on providing relief to drought-hit states, a case which could be significant given the increasing water crisis in the country. The Delhi high court will hear Monsanto’s case regarding regulating trait fee or royalty by the Centre.
Here’s what to expect from courts on Thursday.
Vijay Mallya’s debt repayment plan
The Supreme Court will hear the case against erstwhile liqour baron Vijay Mallya. After being cornered by the banks in court, Mallya offered to pay as much as ₹ 6,000 crore to settle ₹ 9,091 crore in dues his defunct Kingfisher Airlines Ltd owes to banks. Read more
The consortium of 17 banks led by State Bank of India will place their stand on the offer before the court. The Economic Times first reported on Monday that the banks have decided to reject Mallya’s offer.
SpiceJet-KAL Airways share dispute
The Delhi high court will hear an ongoing share dispute between SpiceJet and Kalanithi Maran’s KAL Airways. At the last hearing, the court ordered SpiceJet to pass a board resolution in favour of Kalanithi Maran’s KAL Airlines and make a joint representation before the BSE with regard to the earlier application made by SpiceJet for issuance of warrants.
The plea brought by Kalanithi Maran and KAL Airways over the share transfer dispute with SpiceJet Ltd demanded that 180 million warrants redeemable as equity shares be transferred to them. On 14 March, a draft resolution was submitted by SpiceJet in court.
The matter was brought on 11 March before justice Manmohan Singh, who asked SpiceJet to submit to the court a draft of the proposed board resolution to be passed in favour of Maran before it passes a protective order in this regard. Read more
Mahyco Monsanto’s plea on price control on Bt cotton
The Delhi high court will hear a case dealing with imposing of price control on Bt cotton seeds under the order of a central price control committee. On 27 January, the government executed its price control order which will decide the price farmers pay for cotton seed technology. Read more
The agriculture ministry on 7 December issued a price control order to bring uniformity in Bt cotton seed prices, as several states such as Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh and Telangana have brought in price control orders. The other reason, according to the ministry, is to make Bt cotton seeds affordable.
MMBL, a joint venture between Mahyco and Monsanto, petitioned the Delhi high court to quash certain provisions in the price control order, specifically those allowing the Centre to determine trait or royalty fees, Such fees, according to MMBL, are determined by private contracts between technology providers (MMBL) and seed companies who use the technology.
The nine-member committee constituted by the Centre on cotton seed prices has recommended a 70% reduction in royalty fees payable to technology companies like Monsanto, and overall lowering of seed prices.
Recently, the company had threatened to leave the country over the government committee’s proposal to slash royalty fees on genetically modified Bt cotton seeds. Read more
Arvind Kejriwal to appear before Patiala house court in defamation case
Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal and five others will present themselves before chief metropolitan magistrate Sumit Dass on Thursday. On 9 March, Dass summoned Kejriwal and the others over defamation charges levelled by finance minister Arun Jaitley. Jaitley approached the Patiala house court slapping criminal defamation charges on Kejriwal for allegedly false and defamatory statements made by him regarding siphoning funds from the Delhi District Cricket Association when Jaitley was its president.
Water crisis: PIL for relief to drought-hit states
The Supreme court will continue to hear a public interest litigation (PIL) filed by non-profit Swaraj Abhiyan, seeking the court’s intervention to ensure adequate relief for drought-affected regions. In one of the previous hearings, justices Madan. B. Lokur and R.K. Agarwal had rapped states that had not implemented the Food Security Act, considering the drought situation in the country. The court also came down heavily on the Centre on Thursday for not doing enough to mitigate the drought situation in the country. Read more
Minimum import price on steel products
The high court will hear a plea by lobby group Steel Wires Association of India against the government’s minimum import price or MIP on 173 steel products aimed at providing relief to local steel producers hurt by cheap imports. On 17 March, the court had sought responses within two weeks from the Director General of Foreign Trade (DGFT), the ministry of commerce and the ministry of finance in the matter. The association in its plea has questioned the jurisdiction of DGFT which issued a notification on 5 February imposing MIP on 173 steel products ranging between $341 and $752 per tonne. Read more
Vodafone and Airtel’s challenge to interconnection charges
Telcos challenge to Telecom Regulatory Authority of India’s (Trai) notification on interconnection charges aimed at lowering call rates will be heard by the court. Interconnection usage charges are payable by a telecom operator whose subscriber makes a call to the operator whose subscriber receives the call. Trai reviews the interconnection charges in intervals of two-three years, but was unable to do it since the current inter-connection regime came into place in April 2009. A challenge to this is pending before the Supreme Court. Read more
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