In 2008, DMRC had signed a contract with DAMEPL related to the design, installation, commissioning, operation and maintenance of the line. The court was informed that the Centre through the MoHUA on October 28 had informed that a meeting will be convened between the Centre, Delhi government and DMRC as well as leading banks to discuss the matter. (File) The Delhi High Court Monday asked the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) to inform it about the modalities of payment with respect to the outstanding amount due to Reliance nfrastructure’s Delhi Airport Metro Express Private Limited (DAMEPL) under the terms of the May 2017 arbitral award. A single judge bench of Justice V Kameswar Rao made the observation after the court was informed by Senior Advocate Maninder Singh, appearing for DMRC, that a meeting is scheduled between the Government of India, the Delhi government and other stakeholders to discuss the matter. He further submitted that Attorney General of India (AG) R Venkataramani, who appears for DMRC, was held up in a separate engagement and it was requested that the matter be deferred to November 18. The court, however, said that “the Judgment Debtor (DMRC) is expected to inform the court about the modalities of the payment”. The DMRC filed an additional affidavit Monday stating that it had written to the Union Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs and Delhi government on August 1 and had prayed for providing “consent/assurance for contributing equity in equal proportion” by both shareholders i.e., Union Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs and Government of NCT Delhi. The affidavit states that DMRC had again written to the Centre and the Delhi government on September 6 requesting infusion of funds as “Grant/Equity/Interest free Subordinate Debt to DMRC” for payment of balance arbitral award amount. The court was informed that the Centre through the MoHUA on October 28 had informed that a meeting will be convened on November 10 between the Centre, Delhi government and DMRC as well as leading banks to discuss the matter. “This meeting is expected to come out with some proposals and it is, therefore, respectfully prayed that this Hon’ble Court may pass orders as deem fit after the outcome of the said meeting is placed before this Hon’ble Court,” the affidavit states. Senior Advocate Jaideep Gupta, appearing for DAMEPL, submitted that DMRC has “not been taking the orders of the HC seriously”. He further submitted “no modalities as to payment of the balance amount has been placed before the court till now”. Singh submitted that the AG is himself appearing in the matter and “whatever is the outcome of the meeting, the court will be informed of the same”. The matter is now listed on November 18. The Centre and Delhi government are the two equity partners of DMRC. Till now, DMRC has paid approximately Rs 2,600 crore to DAMEPL, the additional affidavit states. DMRC has now sought Rs 3,500 crore from both equity partners for payment of balance amount. On October 10, the AG had informed the court that DMRC has written to the Centre and Delhi government for infusion of funds in the public sector undertaking which will enable it to pay the “outstanding amount” to DAMEPL as per the arbitral award. He had further submitted that the “importance of complying with the decree is well taken but equally important is the concerns of the Delhi Metro”. An additional affidavit filed by DMRC before the previous hearing stated that if DAMEPL’s prayers are granted at this juncture, “operations of the DMRC would come to complete standstill, which would be prejudicial to public interest, considering that approximately 48 lakh journeys take place daily on the Metro system maintained by DMRC” in the NCR. Referring to the affidavit, the AG had said in the previous hearing that the company is reeling under financial crisis and if it pursues raising of any loan, it will not be able to serve the interest & loan repayment and may fall into a financial trap.