SC to hear Reliance's airport plea on June 1

The Supreme Court has admitted the appeal of the Anil Ambani-owned Reliance Airport Developers challenging the Delhi High Court judgment that upheld the allotment of modernisation work of the Delhi and Mumbai airports to the consortia led by GMR and GVK, respectively.

The appeal would be heard by a special Bench on June 1 "as the matter deserves to be heard urgently," the order passed by Chief Justice YK Sabharwal said. Since there is no interim order, there will be no change in the current position of the parties.

The Bench, headed by the chief justice, observed that the validity of lowering of the benchmark would have to be examined. It may be recalled that the benchmark was lowered from 80 per cent to 50 per cent.

Another question raised by the court was how could the group of ministers claim any expertise in these matters while downgrading the norms.

While senior counsel for Reliance Mukul Rohtagi attacked the downgrading of the benchmark, allegedly to benefit the two consortia, KK Venugopal, the counsel for GMR, emphasised that the court should not interefere in the matter as there was no "malafide" intention and his client was the only party qualified in the first round.

According to the terms of the tender, it was given a choice between Delhi and Mumbai airports, and it chose Delhi.

Venugopal also pointed out that the Delhi High Court hearings had already delayed the project for one month and the project has to be completed in time for the 2010 Commonwealth Games. National prestige would be affected if the litigation delayed the work, he said.

Additional Solicitor General Gopal Subramaniam submitted that the group of ministers had considered all the options and it had before it a number of expert committee reports for guidance.

He pointed out that the Delhi project has already been handed over to the consortium and therefore no order should be passed at this stage to upset the project.

The court has asked GMR and GVK to file their replies within two weeks. Reliance has been told to file a reply a week thereafter.

The high court, on April 21, had ruled that the government's action was in no way "discriminatory, illogical or illegal".

It held that the authorities had "absolute discretion to vary the tender requirements or amend the term of request for proposal as per the requirements of the project".