The Supreme Court on Friday stayed the winding up proceedings against SpiceJet Airlines for three weeks but warned the carrier may have to face liquidation proceedings if it fails to resolve the financial dispute with creditor Credit Suisse AG to whom it reportedly owes over $24 million.

After briefly hearing senior advocate Harish Salve for the airline and senior counsel K.V.Viswanathan for the Swiss firm, a bench of Chief Justice N.V.Ramana, Justice A.S. Bopanna and Justice Hima Kohli ordered the stay and decided to adjourn the case for three weeks.

The court passed the order while dealing with a special leave petition filed by SpiceJet challenging the concurrent rulings of a single judge and a division bench of Madras High Court which had earlier dismissed the airline’s appeal against the admission of its winding up on a petition filed by Credit Suisse AG.

During the hearing, Salve told the court that the airlines was “working out something” and sought the adjournment for three weeks.

When CJI Ramana asked Viswanathan for his views the latter said: “They (SpiceJet) are saying they want to make a serious offer. They can have three weeks. What’s being offered now is not even worth mentioning.” He did not elaborate on the offer.

Justice Ramana then observed: “It is a serious matter. If they (Spicejet) don’t want to run the airlines, we will declare it insolvent and go in for liquidation.”

However, the senior counsel of the two camps agreed on a three-week adjournment, prompting the apex court to stay the operation of the high court’s order.

The charges

According to Credit Suisse AG, SpiceJet had failed to honour its commitment to pay the bills for over $24 million raised by it towards the cost of maintenance, repairs and overhauling of the aircraft engines and components in terms of a 2011 pact between the two companies.