The Supreme Court on Thursday reserved its judgement on an appeal by Anil Ambani Group firm Reliance Airport Developers challenging the Delhi high court verdict, which upheld the government's decision to allot modernisation of Delhi and Mumbai airports to rival bidders GMR and GVK-led consortia.
Concluding the marathon arguments, a bench comprising Justice Arjit Pasayat and Justice S H Kapadia directed the contesting parties to file the written submissions within a week.
The court will examine whether fair and transparent procedure was adopted in allotting modernisation works of the two airports. Reliance had filed a special leave petition against the April 21 verdict, which held that the government's action was in no way 'discriminatory, illogical or illegal'.
It has questioned the option given to GMR for picking an airport of its choice (Delhi) for modernisation after opening of the financial bid and has alleged that lowering of the benchmark from 80 per cent to 50 per cent was totally arbitrary.
The company has 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 opposed the appeal contending that the entire process was fair and transparent and there was favouritism in awarding the contract.
While upholding the technical parameters adopted in awarding the contracts, the high court had said the government and the AAI had 'absolute discretion to vary the tender requirements or amend the term of RFP (Request for Proposal)' as per the requirements of the project.
Reliance has challenged the award of contracts to GMR and GVK-led consortia on the ground that the government and the AAI had deliberately amended tender norms to favour the rival bidders.