EIH seeks disputed land from govt

The East India Hotels Ltd (EIH), which owns the Oberoi chain of hotels, has submitted before the Delhi High Court that the government had failed to allot a piece of land to it despite receiving a licence fee of Rs 4.61 crore in 1995 for construction of a budget hotel in the Capital.

Seeking immediate allotment of the land, senior counsel Dushyant Dave, appearing for the EIH, said the government failing to execute the agreement was ''arbitrary and violated the company's right to freedom of trade and occupation''.

The impugned inaction was against public interest as the shortage of hotel rooms in the New Delhi hampered promotion of tourism besides failing to cater to the needs of local people and foreign tourists, the EIH said.

Further, the inaction deprived EIH of the revenue which it would have earned in the foreign exchange, the counsel said.

According to Dave, despite paying an amount of Rs 4.61 crore till date to the Land and Development Office (L&DO) towards license fee, EIH had waited for the last 6 years for execution of the license agreement and had suffered irreparable financial and business loss. Justice Vikramajit Sen has fixed the next date of hearing on April 20.

Earlier, the High Court had issued notices and granted stay against the dispossession of land and had restrained L&DO under the ministry of urban affairs and employment from auctioning the property. The EIH had moved court seeking execution of the license deed by the government and quashing of the impugned order cancelling the allotment of the land.

According to the EIH, L&DO had allotted land measuring 2.76 acres adjacent to its hotel, The Oberoi at Dr Zakir Hussain Marg, New Delhi in February 1981 for construction of a 250-room hotel for Asian Games, which was held in 1982.

However, the allotment was withdrawn and the land was allotted to Delhi Transport and Tourism Development Corporation (DTTDC) as the EIH had expressed its inability to commission the hotel within the stipulated time, according to the petition filed through Counsel Ravi Sikri.

The petition stated that since no steps were taken for over eight years by the DTTDC to construct the budget hotel, the department of tourism and DTTDC had invited global bids for construction and operation of the hotel. According to it, the DTTDC had issued letter for building and running of the hotel for 33 years in July 1992 to the EIH after evaluating 13 global bids.