TBM Staff - Mumbai The National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) has postponed the hearing of insolvency pleas against SpiceJet which were filed by aircraft lessors Aircastle of Ireland and Wilmington Trust. The court granted SpiceJet 10 days to file a rejoinder to the pleas. The NCLT questioned the lessors for filing multiple petitions for the same claim, to which they responded that the multiple petitions were for clarity and simplicity, and there is no prohibition on filing multiple petitions when each default in payment requires a separate plea.
The Aircastle case is scheduled to be heard on August 8, while Wilmington Trust’s plea will be heard on August 17. The senior lawyer representing Aircastle argued that their petition should be given priority as they are the only petitioner for which the court has issued a notice, and the pleading process has been completed.
Krishnendu Dutta, a senior lawyer representing SpiceJet, challenged the admissibility of three simultaneous pleas filed by a single petitioner and requested the court to grant 10 days to submit rejoinders to the lessors’ reply.
Additionally, on July 21, NCLT will decide on the maintainability of the insolvency plea filed by Willis Lease Finance Corp., which had leased engines to SpiceJet.
