NEW DELHI: Spicejet and its promoter Ajay Singh on Wednesday approached the Delhi High Court challenging a single-judge order upholding an arbitral award asking them to refund Rs 579 crore plus interest to media baron Kalanithi Maran.

The appeals came up before a division bench of Justices Yashwant Varma and Dharmesh Sharma which initially listed it for hearing on September 15 as the counsel for Spicejet and Singh were not present. Later, Spicejet’s counsel mentioned the matter before the bench which then listed it for hearing on Thursday. On July 31, the single judge had upheld the award announced by the arbitration tribunal on July 20, 2018 in favour of Maran and his company Kal Airways.

“There is nothing in the impugned award to suggest that it suffers from patent illegality and the findings therein are perverse and will shock the conscience of this court. “In the instant case, the petitioners have not been able to prove that the impugned arbitral award is patently illegal, against public policy of India or fundamental policy of law and thus have failed to make out a case for the award to be set aside,” the single judge bench had said in its verdict.

It had said the court was barred from entering into the merits of an award unless there was an error that was apparent on the face of the record or an illegality that goes to the root of the matter. Ajay Singh had approached the high court challenging the arbitral award.