DMRC ops, salary funds won’t be attached, says Delhi high court

The court said that funds reserved for salaries, operations and management to run the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) will not be attached in case of failure to pay the unpaid arbitral award to the Delhi Airport Metro Express Private Limited (DAMEPL).

The Delhi high court on Wednesday said that funds reserved for salaries, operations and management to run the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) will not be attached in case of failure to pay the unpaid arbitral award to the Delhi Airport Metro Express Private Limited (DAMEPL).

Passengers wait at a station on the Blue line. (ANI)

While disposing of DMRC’s review petition against the attachment of its assets, justice Yashwant Varma noted that DMRC has been accorded protection as far as salaries and other expenses are concerned, in terms of the earlier order by the court on March 10, 2022.

On March 17, the high court asked the Centre and the Delhi government to take a decision on the “extension of sovereign guarantee/subordinate debts, enabling it to liquidate its liabilities under the award within two weeks”, adding that DMRC will deposit the entire award along with interest within a month, if both decide to extend the sovereign guarantee.

However, the court said that in case the parties don’t proceed accordingly, DMRC’s total funds will be attached. Earlier in the day, the court adjourned the case to April 24 after noting that the Centre and the Delhi government filed special leave petition (SLPs) in the Supreme Court against the March 17 order. However, the matter was urgently mentioned by a team of lawyers from DMRC, contending that there would be massive problems if an interim relief is not granted. The court, after hearing the arguments, allowed the corporation to use funds from its accounts for salaries operations, and management purposes only.