On October 18, The Delhi High Court dismissed the appeal petition filed by the Airport Authority of India challenging the arbitration award in favor of Delhi International Airports Limited, a subsidiary of GMR Airports Limited, according to an exchange filing.
DIAL invoked arbitration against AAI with respect to the scope and meaning of the term “Revenue” under the Operation, Management, and Development Agreement dated April 04, 2006, which set out the process for computing the Annual Fee payable to AAI and a corresponding claim for consequential recovery of certain amounts of the Annual Fee paid to AAI.
The Arbitral Tribunal passed the Award on July 16, 2022. It held that to compute the Annual Fee payable by DIAL to AAI, the following amounts shall be excluded from the shareable revenue of DIAL: Amounts representing the costs relating to aeronautical assets, i.e., amounts spent from the borrowed capital including interest thereon and form the equity capital; Charges for various utilities including power, water, sewage or analogous utilities, the property tax paid to Relevant Authorities and payments towards security maintenance cost.; Proceeds accruing from selling any capital assets; and Other Income.According to the award, DIAL is entitled to a refund of the excess Annual Fee paid from June 21, 2015, in line with the terms of the Award, with the actual amount to be determined by the Independent Auditor.
The Delhi High Court order is subject to appeal before the Division Bench.
