On Friday, SpiceJet told the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) that Willis Lease Finance is not among the four operational creditors of the airline and, hence, its petition against the airline to initiate a corporate insolvency resolution process should be dismissed.
Willis Lease Finance Corp. is the third lessor to approach the NCLT seeking recovery of outstanding dues from SpiceJet.
After the hearing, the court deferred the proceedings and the next day of hearing the matter is July 31.
According to Krishnendu Dutta, senior counsel representing the airline, the petitioner’s submission to the court names West Engines (Ireland) Ltd. as the engine lessor, and West Engines itself has not filed the petition. Furthermore, during the hearing, Willis Finance never mentioned being assigned by West Engines to file the plea. Dutta emphasized that Willis Lease Finance must provide evidence that they are genuine operational creditors and that a subsidiary does not have the right to file a petition; only the assignees are allowed to do so.
The airline also contested the admissibility of the petition and pointed out that the court’s previous order only granted Wills Finance liberty to withdraw the petition, but did not provide liberty to lessors to refile the same petition for the same matter.
During the hearing, Willis Finance reinstated that their initial petition which was filed on 1 May, included 170 invoices, some of which fell within the period specified under section 10(A) of the IBC (Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code). However, that petition was withdrawn due to technical reasons and subsequently filed a new one, excluding those invoices.
According to the petition filed, SpiceJet owed the engine lessor ₹89.3 crore as on 4 November 2022, together with interest calculated until 30 September 2022.
Similar pleas filed by Wilmington and Aircastle are pending in the tribunal and are set to be heard on 8 August and 17 August. Aircastle (Ireland) and Wilmington had managed to deregister two aircraft from the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) in March, leveraging the provisions of Irrevocable De-registration and Export Request Authorisations.
