GMR Group on Monday acquired a shot within the arm with the Supreme Court clearing the decks for it to function the Babasaheb Ambedkar International Airport in Nagpur.
The apex courtroom upheld the Bombay High Court’s choice to quash the state-owned MIHAN India’s order cancelling a contract awarded to the airport developer to function the Nagpur airport.
While GMR, which operates the Indira Gandhi International Airport in Delhi, had emerged as the best bidder within the tender course of for the Nagpur airport in 2019, a yr later the Maharashtra authorities had determined to cancel the tender course of and issued a letter annulling the bid course of. GMR had moved the Bombay High Court looking for quashing of the annulment letter.
A Bench led by Justice Vineet Saran dismissed 4 appeals filed by the Central authorities, the Maharashtra authorities, the Airports Authority of India (AAI) and others in opposition to the HC’s August 18, final yr’s order that requested MIHAN (the Multi-modal International Cargo Hub and Airport at Nagpur) to execute the settlement signed with the infrastructure firm for the upgradation and operation of the airport.
The HC had additionally quashed the March 19, 2020 letter issued by MIHAN India annulling the bidding course of for the airport and additional directed the state-owned entity to take all steps by way of the Request for Proposal (RFP) situations, together with the signing of a Concession Agreement for the Nagpur Airport, inside six weeks.
Challenging the setting apart of its choice to cancel the tender course of and retender the venture, Mihan had argued that each one the 4 authorities authorities weren’t in favour of constant with the five-year-old tender course of because the provides had been financially low and rather a lot had modified within the interregnum, thus requiring recent tendering with a brand new monetary mannequin.
The acceptance of the bid was conditional and required approval from the Union Civil Aviation Ministry, MIHAN India, a authorities JV between Maharashtra Airport Development Company and AAI, it acknowledged, including that the HC had interfered within the tender course of, with out there being a concluded contract with GMR and regardless of the details on report clearly displaying loss to the federal government exchequer, the enchantment acknowledged.
GMR whereas opposing the enchantment stated that the motion of the federal government in cancelling the annulment course of was arbitrary, unreasonable and smacks of authorized malice. It argued that the letter of acceptance of March 2019 was a letter of award and if one goes by its tenor and phrases and situations of the request for proposal (RFP).
According to the corporate, it had accepted the letter of the award following the bidding doc and subsequently, it was a concluded contract and should result in the execution of the concession settlement. GMR additionally argued that the situations weren’t a part of the letter of award and posted bid situations, which had been solely a formality because the switch of the airport and its property along with the land to it had already taken place with the approval of GoI.
However, MIHAN argued that the HC was not proper in holding that the Government of Maharashtra had no enterprise with the tender course of though the state authorities by its firm, Maharashtra Airport Development Company, is a majority shareholder of MIHAN India firm holding 51% shares. It must be thought-about that the function of the state authorities was by no means in dispute and the venture monitoring and implementation committee constituted by the state authorities was overseeing your entire tender course of, it added.
Source: www.financialexpress.com”