Bombay High Court defers ruling on Jet-Sahara case till July 2

Mumbai, June 21 (PTI) The Bombay High Court Monday asked
Jet Airways and Sahara India Commercial Corporation Ltd
(SICCL) to settle their dispute over the takeover of Sahara
Airlines by July 2 or else it would pass an order.

Justice Dhananjay Chandrachud deferred the ruling after
both the parties informed the court that they were too eager
to settle the dispute.

Jet Airways had sought time till July 9, but the court
asked both sides to settle before July 2 or else it would pass
an order.

The court had last month directed both Jet and Sahara to
sit across the table and try for an amicable settlement to the
dispute.

This is not for the first time the court has suggested
both to sit down and settle their dispute. Earlier, both tried
but could not find out a solution to their dispute.

SICCL had in March filed a petition, claiming that the
Naresh Goyal-owned airline had defaulted on the installment
amount due as payment for acquisition of Sahara Airlines, now
JetLite, hence it was liable to pay original deal amount of Rs
2,000-crore and not re-negotiated amount of Rs 1,450 crore.

After Sahara's contention that Jet had not paid the
instalments in full, Jet claimed that it had paid an amount of
Rs 100 crore as the first instalment, deducting Rs 37.50 crore
as tax dues.

On the second instalment, it deducted another Rs 50
crore. This was done after the Income-Tax Department raised a
tax demand of Rs 107 crore on the then Sahara Airlines, which,
Jet claimed, is for a period prior to its takeover of Sahara.

Jet acquired Sahara Airlines in 2007 for Rs 1,450 crore.
It paid Rs 900 crore in cash; and the rest, an amount of Rs
550 crore, was to be paid in four annual instalments of Rs
137.50 crore each beginning March 2008. PTI IAS
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