Delhi HC snubs Reliance plea, verdict on Feb 13

The Delhi High Court today said it would dispose of the petition filed by Reliance Airports Developers, part of the Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Enterprises, against award of contracts for the modernisation of the Delhi and Mumbai airports on February 13.

While posting the matter for final hearing on February 13 and directing all the parties, including the government, to file their replies, affidavits and counter-affidavits before February 8, a Division Bench comprising Justice TS Thakur and Justice Sanjeev Khanna observed that it would be an unpleasant decision to stay the entire process of airports revamp.

While seeking a cancellation of the entire tender process, senior counsel Mukul Rohtagi, appearing for Reliance, alleged the government of carrying out the entire process of awarding contracts in an "arbitrary and malafide" manner with the objective of favouring GMR-Fraport and GVK-ACS.

If GMR-Fraport was given the chance to match the bid of the highest bidder for the Delhi airport, the Reliance consortium should have been called for negotiations for the Mumbai airport, Rohtagi argued, adding that this being a composite tender, one company could not be discriminated against another after setting the technical benchmarks which all bidders had passed.

The Airport Authority of India (AAI) and the government should not have had two different yardsticks for the same tender, he said.

Representing GMR-Fraport, senior counsel K K Venugopal argued that the petition needed to be dismissed as his company fulfilled both the technical and financial capabilities to bag the contract.

For the government, Additional Solicitor-General Gopal Subramanium said the government had observed all the necessary rules while finalising the two contracts.

He pointed out that the tender process was made to go through six layers of evaluation by various panels, including eight ministers.

He sought for a disposal of the Reliance petition at the earliest, saying the airports revamp needed to be completed before March, 2010 in view of the Commonwealth games in New Delhi in that year.

The Reliance-ASA combine had charged that AAI, the government, GMR-Fraport, and GVK-ACS had conspired to keep Reliance out of the race. "Can the government and AAI change the terms and parameters of evaluation and award of the tender hours before the final stages without any reason or notice in arbitrary fashion?" the petition had asked.

Besides, Reliance stated that awarding of the bids also violated the Central Vigilance Commission's direction that negotiations cannot be held with any party other than the highest financial bidder.