Cox & Kings Ltd has taken IRCTC to court for terminating the Royale India Rail Tours Ltd, an equal-partner joint venture between the two companies.

In a notification to the stock exchanges, Cox & Kings said that the Delhi High Court, in an interim order passed on Aug 16, has directed the IRCTC ‘to maintain status quo’ on its plea challenging the notice of IRCTC in terminating the joint venture agreement as per a report in Hindu Business Line by R. Y. Narayanan.

The company said that its plea before the court was that the “notice is illegal as its consent has not been obtained before terminating the agreement”. Royale India Rail Tours Ltd is a 50:50 joint venture between Cox & Kings and IRCTC that operates the luxury tourist train service ‘Maharajas’ Express’.

Essentially targeted at the foreign tourists and expat Indians, the Maharaja Express runs four tourist services — Princely India, Royal India, Classical India and Royal Sojourn — all of which offer 7-8 days of travelling experience in the Western and Northern regions of the country. While the first service was operated on the Mumbai-Delhi route, the Royal India tour was operated on the Delhi-Mumbai sector. The last two tours originated from, and terminated at, Delhi. The fare ranged from $4,725 to $20,000 depending on the type of occupancy, status of accommodation and the tour opted for.