The Supreme Court will hear today the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation’s (DMRC) petition seeking to initiate contempt against Reliance Infrastructure firm Delhi Airport Metro Express Private Ltd (DAMEPL), its managing director and others for “wilfully disobeying” its April 10 directions for refund of the amounts deposited by the Corporation.
A Bench comprising justices BR Gavai and KV Vishwanathan was supposed to hear the matter, however, the latter recused as he had appeared in the matter as a lawyer sometime back.
DMRC wants a direction to contemnors to refund over Rs 2800 crore, including interest, that it had deposited in the escrow account maintained by M/s Axis Bank.
The apex court on April 10 had set aside the arbitration award of about Rs 8,000 crore that DAMEPL had won against the state-run DMRC in May 2017.
Allowing the DMRC’s curative petition seeking reversal of the apex court’s 2021 judgment that upheld the arbitration award in favour of the Anil Ambani firm, a three-judge bench led by then Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud said the Supreme Court’s reversal of the Delhi High Court January 2019 verdict in the matter had resulted in a “grave miscarriage of justice”.
