Will the case be heard or will it be deferred again?
"IRL is awaiting the Supreme Court decision regarding HCL’s treatment of the contract price under the work order as if it was inclusive of taxes and levies. This case is listed for final disposal on 19 August 2014. IRL estimates its claim to be worth 431M INR ($7.7M AUD) excluding interest "
If IRL wins this case not only will they get paid AUD$7.7 million but they should be awarded AUD$3 to $4 million in interest since it dates back to 2007. It will also secure a higher income for IRL going forward. Winning the case would push the share price to 2 cents or higher.
If IRL loses the case it will be just more of the same and at least management can focus on growing the company and stop spending money on lawyers.
What are the chances of winning.
1) The court case is in India and its easy to grease palms in India
2) The Supreme Court case is with Hindustan Copper a huge company in India, its likely Judges would likely to keep them happy.
3) What does the actual Surda Contract say? Only the Directors know that and it was obviously their mistake that the Contract wasn't more exact in determining payments and deductions. The Surda Contract is most likely ambiguous so HCL has taken advantage as they are the ones who pay the $$.
4) IRL Management must think that they have a fair chance of winning otherwise they would not have perused the claim for such a long time, as it costs money and time.
I'd say IRL have a 50% chance of winning, the reason I say that is that there was some indication in an earlier judgement that Court did not fully agree with an earlier finding but they would not overrule the previous finding.
" a judgement was delivered by the Court wherein it stated that while it did not agree fully with the views of the Arbitrator, the Court would not interfere with the Award and judgement of the trial Court"
"1. Special Leave Petition filed in Supreme Court of India An appeal was filed against the judgement of the High Court under Section 37 of the Arbitration and Conciliation Act, 1996 regarding HCL’s treatment of the contract price under the work order as if it was inclusive of taxes and levies. The appeal was admitted in September 2012 by the Appeal Court, hearings took place and a judgement was delivered by the Court wherein it stated that while it did not agree fully with the views of the Arbitrator, the Court would not interfere with the Award and judgement of the trial Court. The judgement of the Appeal Court was reviewed by IRL, and it has filed a Special Leave Petition (SLP) in the Supreme Court on 17.1.2013 challenging the judgement of the Division Bench of the High Court. A preliminary hearing took place on 1.3.2013 in which the Supreme Court ordered to issue notice to HCL to file affidavit of defence by 18.4.2013. However, HCL filed the reply only in the last week of April, 2013. The SLP hearing took place on 17th October, 2013. The Court allowed HCL four weeks to file the additional affidavit and two weeks to the Company to file rejoinder, if any, and thereafter to list the case for final hearing in January, 2014. "
Any decision in the Supreme Court will be the end of the matter either way, if IRL wins HCL will have to cough up straight away, no delays like the previous arbitration.
IF HCL doesn't pay immediately when the Supreme Court makes the award then IRL should shut down all operations at Surda until the money IS PAID.
IRL Price at posting:
0.7¢ Sentiment: Buy Disclosure: Held
