Friday, July 14 2006 13:07 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

New Delhi: The Supreme Court Friday directed that a Lucknow court order restraining Jet Airways from withdrawing Rs.15 billion from an escrow account created ahead of its planned merger with Air Sahara that went sour would continue till further orders.

A bench comprising Chief Justice Y.K. Sabharwal and judges C.K. Thakker and R.V. Ravindran passed the order on a petition filed by Jet Airways seeking transfer of the cases relating to the merger from the Lucknow court to the Bombay High Court.

The bench also stayed all further proceedings pending before the Lucknow and Bombay courts.

After the collapse of the agreement between Sahara and Jet to merge into a single entity, Jet had filed a petition before the Bombay High Court for a direction to refer the dispute for arbitration. Sahara, meanwhile, filed a petition in a Lucknow court, which restrained Jet from withdrawing the money deposited in the escrow account.

Challenging this order, Jet pleaded before the Supreme Court for clubbing together all the petitions relating to the deal in the Bombay High Court and also for vacating the Lucknow court's order.