Reliance case: Govt to abide by court order

The government today submitted before the Delhi high court that the impugned tender process for the modernisation of the Delhi and Mumbai airports would be subject to the outcome of the petition filed by the Reliance Airports Developers-led consortium in the court.

The Reliance-ASA consortium has challenged the award of the contracts to modernise the Delhi and Mumbai airports to GMR-Fraport and GVK-ACS, respectively. It had yesterday sought a stay on the privatisation process of the airports till the disposal of the petition.

While contending that the court should not debar the transfer of equity to the private bidders at this stage, Additional Solicitor-General Gopal Subramanium, appearing before a Division Bench of Justice Tirath Singh Thakur and Justice B N Chaturvedi, said the government and the successful bidders would abide by the court's order.

All parties, including the government and foreign collaborators, have agreed to abide by the court's decision.

However, the court adjourned the matter till Monday for arguments, when senior counsel Mukul Rohtagi, appearing for the Reliance consortium, requested the court to either stay the process of privatisation or dismiss its plea.