Mumbai:

SpiceJet said late on Friday that all its systems at airports, ticket bookings and call centres are up and running smoothly after a “successful resolution” of a Microsoft outage that impacted the aviation industry all through the day.

“The technical outage has been fully resolved, and all our systems are back to normal operations,” SpiceJet Chairman and Managing Director Ajay Singh said in a statement.

The outage, which began Friday morning, affected airlines globally, causing temporary disruptions to online services and airport check-in processes.

The airline said that despite the challenges posed by the global technical outage, it is operating all scheduled flights as planned on Friday and claimed there was not even a single cancellation due to the technical outage.

“Our team worked to ensure minimal disruption to our passengers’ travel plans. We appreciate the understanding and cooperation of our passengers and stakeholders during this time,” the airline said

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

New Delhi:

A SpiceJet employee was arrested after she slapped a male assistant sub inspector following an altercation over security screening at the Jaipur airport. The incident was caught on a CCTV camera at the airport.

According to CISF officials, Anuradha Rani was stopped by assistant sub inspector Giriraj Prasad over not having valid permission to enter through a gate while she was entering the airport with other staff members around 4 am. Ms Anuradha was then asked to undergo screening for airline crew at a nearby entrance but no female CISF personnel was present there at the time, they added.

The assistant sub inspector then called for a female colleague to complete the security check but an argument had already escalated by then which ended with the female employee slapping the assistant sub inspector, said Jaipur airport station house officer Ram Lal.

According to an official statement by a SpiceJet spokesperson, the employee had a “valid airport entry pass”. The company has also alleged that the female employee was “subjected to inappropriate and unacceptable language by the CISF personnel, including asking her to come and meet him after his duty hours at his home.”

“Today, an unfortunate incident occurred at Jaipur Airport involving a SpiceJet female security staff member and a male CISF personnel. While escorting a catering vehicle at the steel gate, our female security staff member, who had a valid airport entry pass issued by the Bureau of Civil Aviation Security (BCAS), India’s civil aviation security regulator, was subjected to inappropriate and unacceptable language by the CISF personnel, including asking her to come and meet him after his duty hours at his home,” said the SpiceJet spokesperson.

“SpiceJet is taking immediate legal action in this serious case of sexual harassment against its female employee and has approached the local police. We stand firmly by our employee and are committed to providing her with full support,” the spokesperson added.

Police have registered a case against the female employee under sections 121 (1) (voluntarily causing hurt to deter public servant from his duty) and 132 (assaulting public servant) of Bharat Nyaya Sanhita (BNS).

Supreme Court threatens to throw SpiceJet CMD Ajay Singh into ‘Tihar jail’ over non-payment of dues to Swiss firm. | Representative Image |
| Photo Credit: SUSHIL KUMAR VERMA

The Supreme Court has come down hard on SpiceJet Chairman and Managing Director Ajay Singh, warning him he will be sent to Tihar jail for non-compliance with its order on making payment to global investment bank and financial services firm Credit Suisse AG.

The top court asked Singh to pay ₹5,00,000 towards an instalment to the Swiss firm along with ₹1 million defaulted amount.

“We have to move to the next drastic step. We are not worried even if you shut down,” a bench of Justices Vikram Nath and Ahsanuddin Amanullah observed.

Irked over the “dilly-dally business”, the bench told Mr. Singh that he will have to abide by the consent terms and warned, “We are not bothered even if you die. It is too much. We will send you to Tihar jail, if you do not pay.” The court’s fulmination came on Monday when it asked Mr. Singh and the company secretary of SpiceJet to be present during the hearings and make the payment. It posted the matter for further hearing on September 22.

In a statement, the airline said, “SpiceJet acknowledges the legal process and is committed to complying with all court’s directives and obligations in the Credit Suisse case and will make the payment of ₹1.5 million as per the court directive. Till date, SpiceJet has already paid a total of ₹8 million to Credit Suisse.”

“SpiceJet remains committed to the highest standards of transparency and legal compliance. This liability is an old one and predates the current promoter taking over the company,” it said.

According to the Swiss firm, SpiceJet had availed the services of SR Technics, Switzerland, for maintenance, repair, and overhaul of aircraft engines, modules, components, assemblies, and parts, which were mandatory for its operations.

An agreement for such services was entered into between SpiceJet and SR Technics on November 24, 2011 for 10 years. The terms of payments were also agreed upon.

SR Technics had given Credit Suisse the right to receive payments from SpiceJet for the services.

The apex court had on July 25 given additional time to SpiceJet to make the payment to Credit Suisse as per the consent terms agreed upon by the two parties.

The top court was hearing a plea by the Swiss firm seeking initiation of contempt proceedings against Singh and SpiceJet over “a wilful and intentional disobedience” of court orders and failure to pay dues as per a settlement between the two sides.

On August 14, the bench while issuing contempt notices to Mr. Singh and SpiceJet had noted the submission of the Swiss firm that the apex court had granted indulgence and withdrawn the airline from liquidation only in view of the consent terms dated May 23, 2022 by which ₹500,000 was to be paid every month by the low-cost carrier to the company from July 15, 2020.

“It was submitted that, though as of now more than 6.5 million U.S. dollars has to be deposited, but only a little over 2 million U.S. dollars has been deposited,” the bench had noted the submission of counsel appearing for Credit Suisse in its August 14 order.

SpiceJet and Credit Suisse had told the Supreme Court on August 18, 2022 about the resolution of their financial dispute which led to the withdrawal of an appeal by the low-cost airline against a Madras High Court order for its winding up due to alleged non-payment of dues to the Swiss firm.

“There is a settlement which has taken place on May 23, 2022, as per the consent terms. In view of it, both the parties are satisfied with the settlement and want to withdraw the SLP (special leave petition) filed by the petitioner.

“Accordingly, the application is allowed,” the top court had said in its order.

The had directed the parties to abide by the consent terms.

On the appeal of SpiceJet, the top court had on January 28, 2022 stayed the publication of the winding up notice and the order directing the official liquidator attached to the Madras High Court to take over the assets of the low-cost airline.

It had also asked SpiceJet to resolve the financial dispute with the Swiss firm.

File image.
| Photo Credit: Reuters

Spicejet and its promoter Ajay Singh on August 23 approached the Delhi High Court challenging a single-judge order upholding an arbitral award asking them to refund ₹579 crore plus interest to media baron Kalanithi Maran.

The appeals came up before a division bench of Justices Yashwant Varma and Dharmesh Sharma which initially listed it for hearing on September 15 as the counsel for Spicejet and Mr. Singh were not present.

Later, Spicejet’s counsel mentioned the matter before the bench which then listed it for hearing on Thursday.

On July 31, the single judge had upheld the award announced by the arbitration tribunal on July 20, 2018 in favour of Maran and his company Kal Airways.

“There is nothing in the impugned award to suggest that it suffers from patent illegality and the findings therein are perverse and will shock the conscience of this court.”

“In the instant case, the petitioners have not been able to prove that the impugned arbitral award is patently illegal, against public policy of India or fundamental policy of law and thus have failed to make out a case for the award to be set aside,” the single judge bench had said in its verdict.”

It had said the court was barred from entering into the merits of an award unless there was an error that was apparent on the face of the record or an illegality that goes to the root of the matter.

Ajay Singh had approached the high court challenging the arbitral award.

The High Court had said the petitioners had failed to substantiate the grounds for setting aside the arbitral award and dismissed the two petitions by Spicejet and Ajay Singh.

The case dates to January 2015, when Mr. Singh, who owned the airline earlier, bought it back from Maran after it was grounded for months due to resource crunch.

While the tribunal had asked Maran to pay Singh and the airline ₹29 crore in penal interest, Singh was asked to refund ₹579 crore plus interest to Maran.

The tribunal, created in 2016 on the orders of the Delhi High Court to adjudicate the share transfer dispute, had held that there was no breach of a share sale and purchase agreement reached between Maran and current promoter Ajay Singh in late January 2015.

In a relief to Ajay Singh, the tribunal had, however, rejected Maran’s appeal for damages of ₹1,323 crore from the Gurugram-based carrier.

In February 2015, Maran of the Sun Network and Kal Airways, his investment vehicle, had transferred their 58.46% stake in SpiceJet to Mr. Singh along with ₹1,500 crore debt liability, after the airline was grounded due to a severe cash crunch. Mr. Singh was the first co-founder of the airline and is now its chairman and managing director.

As part of the agreement, Maran and Kal Airways had claimed to have paid Spicejet ₹679 crore for issuing warrants and preference shares. However, Maran approached the Delhi high court in 2017, alleging SpiceJet had neither issued convertible warrants and preference shares nor returned the money.

The senior DGCA official said that in view of the observations made in the past concerning inadequate maintenance and in view of the incidents during the monsoon season last year, SpiceJet was placed under enhanced surveillance.
| Photo Credit: Reuters

Aviation watchdog DGCA has taken off SpiceJet from its enhanced surveillance regime, a senior official said on Tuesday.

The airline, which has been facing multiple headwinds, was placed under enhanced surveillance recently.

The senior DGCA official said that in view of the observations made in the past concerning inadequate maintenance and in view of the incidents during the monsoon season last year, SpiceJet was placed under enhanced surveillance.

“Accordingly 51 spot checks were conducted across 11 locations pan India, on the Boeing 737 and Bombardier DHC Q-400 fleet of aircraft, where in a total 23 aircraft were inspected and 95 observations were made by the DGCA teams,” the official said.

Also Read | DGCA scales down SpiceJet flights by half

The findings were of routine nature and were not considered significant by the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA).

“Suitable maintenance action was taken by the airline to address the findings in accordance with DGCA guidelines. As a consequence, SpiceJet has been taken off the enhanced surveillance regime by DGCA,” the official said.

On July 11, PTI had reported about DGCA placing SpiceJet under the enhanced surveillance regime and on that day, the airline refuted any such development.

Read more | SpiceJet places 90 pilots on leave without pay

When contacted, a SpiceJet spokesperson had said, “the information is absolutely incorrect and is strongly denied”.

No such communication has been received by the airline from the DGCA, the spokesperson had said in a statement on July 11.