SC upholds award of airport projects

The Supreme Court today rejected a petition filed by Anil Ambani's Reliance Airport Developers Ltd challenging a government decision to award contracts for modernising the Delhi and Mumbai airports to GMR Group and GVK Group, respectively.

The move paves the way for the two to develop the airports. It also remove hurdles for the government on privatisation of other airports.

"The appeal is sans merit and deserves to be dismissed," a Bench comprising Justice Arijit Pasayat and Justice SH Kapadia said.

Reliance Airport Developers, which was in the race for the two airports, had challenged the April 21 verdict of the Delhi High Court, which had held that the government's action was in no way discriminatory, illogical or illegal.

Speaking on the occasion, GM Rao, chairman, Delhi International Airport Private Ltd (DIAL) said, "We welcome the decision of the Honourable Supreme Court, and this judgment reinforces our commitment to build a world-class airport that will be the pride of Delhi and the nation."

The government also welcomed the apex court's decision.

"The Supreme Court's verdict vindicates the government's stand and paves the way for building world-class infrastructure in the country," Civil Aviation Minister Praful Patel said.

The Delhi airport is being upgraded by a consortium led by the GMR Group in collaboration with German airport operator Fraport, Eraman Malaysia, state-run Airports Authority of India and Indian infrastructure firm IDFC Ltd The contract to revamp Mumbai airport was won by a consortium led by GVK Industries Ltd and Airports Company of South Africa.

In July, the Supreme Court began hearing a complaint filed by Reliance Airport Developers against the state's handling of an airport privatisation programme.

When the modernisation contracts for the Mumbai and Delhi airports were awarded to GMR and GVK in February, a consortium led by Anil Ambani alleged irregularities after failing in the bidding process.

While questioning the conduct of Reliance Airport Developers during the bidding, the apex court also criticised the evaluation committee for altering the scoring norms, saying it had no business to expand or narrow the scoring pattern.

The Bench said experience in property development was different from that in infrastructure development. In its petition, Reliance Airport Developers had contended that the government and the Airports Authority of India deliberately amended the tender norms to favour the GMR and GVK-led consortiums.

While upholding the technical parameters adopted in awarding the contracts, the high ourt had said the government and the Airports Authority of India had "absolute discretion to vary the tender requirements or amend the term of request for proposal" according to the requirements of the project.

Reliance Airport Developers had also questioned the option given to GMR for picking an airport of its choice (Delhi) for modernisation after opening the financial bid and had alleged that lowering the benchmark from 80 per cent to 50 per cent was totally arbitrary.

The company had contended that as the highest financial bidder for the Delhi airport and as the highest technical bidder for the Mumbai airport, it should have been awarded at least one of the projects.

GMR, GVK and the government maintained during the hearing that the entire process had been fair and transparent and that there had been no favouritism.