Sahara says no compromise with Jet

The Sahara group on Thursday ruled out an out-of-the-court settlement with Jet Airways over their dispute on the multi-crore Sahara airlines take over deal even as Bombay high court granted two months time to both the parties for filing affidavits.

Justice D Y Chandrachud adjourned the case till January 19 after Jet and Sahara India Commercial Corporation Ltd pleaded for time to file additional affidavits.

Sahara's lawyer Pradeep Sancheti told PTI outside the court that at the moment they were not looking at an out-of-the-court settlement and that the airline was expecting a ruling from the court after the January 19 hearing.

The Bombay high court had earlier suggested to both the litigants to settle their dispute amicably.

On July 15, Jet and Sahara informed the court that efforts to arrive at an out-of-the-court had failed. Sahara, in March, had filed a petition claiming that the Naresh Goyal-owned airline had defaulted on the instalment amount due as payment for acquisition of Sahara Airlines, now JetLite.

Hence, it was liable to pay original deal amount of Rs 2,000 crore (Rs 20 billion) and not re-negotiated amount of Rs 1,450 crore (Rs 14.5 billion).

Sahara further contended that Jet had not paid the instalments in full. Jet claimed that it had paid an amount of Rs 100 crore (Rs 1 billion) as the first installment, deducting Rs 37.50 crore (Rs 375 million) as tax dues.

On the second installment, it deducted another Rs 50 crore (Rs 500 million). This was done after the Income-Tax Department raised a tax demand of Rs 107 crore (Rs 1.07 billion) on the then Sahara Airlines, which, Jet claimed, is for a period prior to its takeover of Sahara.

Jet acquired Sahara Airlines in 2007 for Rs 1,450 crore (Rs 14.5 billion). It paid Rs 900 crore (Rs 9 billion) in cash; and the rest, an amount of Rs 550 crore (Rs 5.5 billion), was to be paid in four annual instalments of Rs 137.50 crore (Rs 1.37 billion) each beginning March 2008.