A four-judge Bench of the Supreme Court headed by Chief Justice of India D.Y. Chandrachud on Friday, February 9, 2024, agreed to hear a curative petition filed by the Union authorities and the Airports Authority of India in search of a re-look of an apex court docket judgment which allowed the GMR Group to function Nagpur’s Babasaheb Ambedkar International Airport in 2022.
The Centre and the Authority (AAI) have argued that they have been neither impleaded as events or heard by the Supreme Court whereas upholding in 2022 a choice of Bombay High Court choice quashing a March 2020 communication issued by MIHAN, a three way partnership between the Maharashtra Airport Development Company and AAI, cancelling an award granted to GMR to improve and function the airport.
GMR had emerged as the best bidder in the tender course of performed by MIHAN India Limited for the Nagpur Airport in 2019. The Letter of Award was issued to GMR in March 2019. However, the Maharashtra authorities had determined to annul the tender in March 2020.
Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, for the Centre, mentioned ‘airways, aircraft and air navigation’ got here in Entry 29 of the Union List in the Seventh Schedule of the Constitution. The Union authorities and the AAI ought to have been made a celebration and heard in court docket.
Mr. Mehta mentioned the AAI Act and the operations, upkeep and growth laws of airports refer to the Union authorities as an important stakeholder.
Countering, senior advocate A.M. Singhvi, for GMR, mentioned AAI had 26% shareholding in MIHAN, which was exhaustively heard by the court docket earlier than the judgment. He questioned the maintainability of the curative petition. Mr. Singhvi mentioned this was solely an “intra-court appeal” dressed up as a curative petition. He argued that the grounds for a curative petition was both judicial bias or violation of the ideas of pure justice. Neither will be agitated in this case, Mr. Singhvi submitted.
The court docket determined to hear the case after two weeks.
