The Centre on Monday opposed in the Delhi High Court a PIL seeking cancellation of a lease awarding 50 acres of land at Kandla Port in Gujarat to a private firm, on the ground on lack of territorial jurisdiction.
A bench of Chief Justice Rajendra Menon and Justice V K Rao was told by Additional Solicitor General Sandeep Sethi that the petition was without any merits and the court need not go into the controversy.
After hearing the arguments of the counsel for the petitioner, the Centre and Kandla Port Trust (KPT), now known as Deendayal Port Trust, the court reserved its verdict on the petition filed by the NGO, Centre for Public Interest Litigation (CPIL).
Advocate Prashant Bhushan, appearing for the NGO, alleged that KPT overvalued the structures set up at the site by the firm, Friends Salt Works and Allied Industries (FSWAI), when it had leased the land in the past, to ensure that only the firm gets the contract.
The ASG argued that the tender was invited at Gujarat, the property concerned was situated in Gujarat where the bidding cum auction was conducted and no cause of action arose within the jurisdiction of the Delhi High Court.
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The Centre, in its affidavit filed in the matter, has said that it adopts the stand taken by the port trust which denied the allegations levelled in the petition.
Senior advocate A S Chandiok, appearing for the port trust, also said the petition was not maintainable on the grounds of lack of territorial jurisdiction.
He said merely because the Union of India has been arrayed as a party respondent, would not confer the right to the petitioner to file the plea here and even no relief has been sought against the Centre.
The port trust, in its affidavit, claimed that the entire process of tender was lawfully conducted in a transparent manner and that it has acted in conformity with relevant land policy and norms such as awarding of contracts by inviting tenders.
The petition has alleged that KPT overvalued the assets, including a liquid storage tank terminal, at Rs 207 crore which a successful bidder for the land had to pay to FSWAI under the new tender issued in 2014.
It said the FSWAI in its balance sheet had valued the structures at Rs 48 crore.
The petition claimed that FSWAI did not have to pay the amount of Rs 207 crore if it was successful in the bid and added that under the earlier lease agreement KPT did not have any contractual obligation to compensate the firm for its assets.
The NGO has sought that if the lease awarded to the firm in April 2015 is not cancelled, then the amount of Rs 207 crore be recovered from it.
"The introduction of said clause in the tender (to compensate FSWAI) is illegal and arbitrary since it was the responsibility of FSWAI to remove the structures before the expiry of the (earlier) lease. The additional burden of Rs 207 crore on other bidders put them at a significant disadvantage and ensured that the said tender would be awarded to FSWAI," the NGO has alleged in its plea.
CPIL had earlier raised the issue in a fresh application moved in a pending petition which claimed that a huge scam had taken place during 1960s and 1970s when plots near Kandla Port were leased out on nomination basis to private parties without a bidding process.
The court, however, had asked the NGO to file a separate petition to challenge the new lease and subsequently it filed the instant PIL.
The earlier PIL had also alleged irregularities in allotment of 16,000 acres of government land which caused a huge loss to the state.
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