The National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) is set to pronounce its verdict on Wednesday in an insolvency petition filed against SpiceJet, in a case that has already drawn a rare rebuke from the bench over the airline’s handling of settlement talks with its creditors.
A special bench of Judicial Member Mahendra Khandelwal and Technical Member Anu Jagmohan Singh had reserved its order in the case filed by aircraft lessor Aviator ML 29641 Ltd, which had sought to initiate insolvency proceedings against SpiceJet over an alleged default of roughly ₹58-60 crore linked to a leased Boeing 737 aircraft.
The order was originally due on Monday. Instead, SpiceJet told the tribunal it had reached an overnight settlement with Aviator ML and had already paid an initial tranche of ₹4.78 crore (about $500,000), with the airline admitting the underlying debt.
NCLT calls timing of settlement a “mockery”
The bench did not take kindly to the eleventh-hour disclosure. “We do not appreciate the conduct of the parties for coming out with the settlement at this stage when the judgment is to be pronounced,” the tribunal said, adding that “precious judicial time has been wasted” after both sides had already completed detailed arguments.
“It makes a mockery of the entire thing that we are wasting our time. This kind of thing we will not accept,” the bench observed, according to tribunal proceedings.
The judges noted they had repeatedly asked through the hearings whether a settlement was likely; SpiceJet had signalled it was open to one, while Aviator ML had insisted no deal was on the table, only for an agreement to surface just as the ruling was due.
Other lessors cry foul
The Aviator ML case is one of eight linked insolvency petitions filed against SpiceJet by six aircraft lessors , Sabarmati Aviation, JetAir 17, Falgu Aviation, Alterna Aircraft, Aviator ML and AWAS Ireland, under Section 9 of the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (IBC). Combined dues claimed by the lessors across the eight petitions exceed ₹500 crore, according to submissions before the tribunal.
Lawyers for the other lessors pushed back hard against any delay, arguing the settlement with a single creditor should not be allowed to derail the remaining seven cases. They alleged the move was a “malafide” attempt by SpiceJet to use one settlement as leverage to block insolvency proceedings across the board, a strategy they described as SpiceJet’s “buy one and get eight free” plan.
Given that the Aviator ML matter and the other seven petitions are closely linked, the tribunal ultimately deferred its order in the Aviator ML case to Wednesday, August 19, and pushed the ruling on the remaining seven petitions to Thursday, August 20. The bench made clear the remaining matters would not be deferred again.
A two-year-old case, and a carrier already under financial strain
The eight petitions have been pending before the NCLT since 2024. The proceedings come as SpiceJet continues to battle severe financial pressure. The airline reported a net loss of ₹1,138.15 crore for the nine months ended December 31, against a loss of ₹266.8 crore a year earlier, while revenue from operations fell 14% to ₹3,271.5 crore over the same period.
SpiceJet, controlled by chairman and managing director Ajay Singh, has faced a string of insolvency petitions from aircraft lessors in recent years. It has resolved several of them through cash settlements or by converting dues into equity.
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