Reliance Infrastructure (RInfra) on Thursday won a four-year battle against Delhi Metro for control of money from an arbitration award that it said it needed to repay lenders. 

A two-judge panel of the Supreme Court (SC) on Thursday upheld the 2017 arbitration award in favour of Anil Ambani’s company. The arbitration tribunal’s award is worth over Rs 4,660 crore ($632 million), including interest, according to RInfr’s annual report. 

The verdict is a crucial victory for Mr Ambani, as his telecom company is in bankruptcy, and he is contesting a personal insolvency case lodged by the country’s largest lender, State Bank of India. RInfra shares jumped by the daily limit of 5 per cent after the court order. 

Reliance would use the money to pay lenders, the company’s lawyers had said during the case hearings, following which the top court had barred banks from marking the company’s accounts as non-performing assets. The final ruling in the case also lifts the court’s restriction on lenders. 

A subsidiary of RInfra had in 2008 entered into a contract with Delhi Metro for running the country’s first private city rail project till 2038. Following disputes over fee and operations in 2012, Mr Ambani’s company had stopped operating the capital’s airport metro project and initiated an arbitration case against Delhi Metro, alleging violation of contract and had sought a termination fee.