New Delhi: Delhi High Court on Wednesday restrained Indus Towers and New Delhi Municipal Council (NDMC) from entering into a contract to provide free WiFi and set up CCTVs on 18,500 street poles in areas under the civic body's jurisdiction.
A bench of justices Badar Durrez Ahmed and Sanjeev Sachdeva issued the direction while observing that the tender for the project did not prescribe specifications of the LED lights and CCTV cameras that were to be installed.
The court said since there were no specifications, there was no standard methodology for comparing the bids of Indus and Reliance Jio Infocomm, which had moved the plea seeking quashing of Letter of Intent (LoI) issued to Indus by NDMC.
"Till we hear the matter finally, further action pursuant to notice inviting tender shall not take place. Respondent 1 (NDMC) and 2 (Indus) not to enter into contract till next date of hearing," it said and listed the matter on July 27.
During the hearing on Reliance's plea, the court observed that CCTVs currently installed in Delhi cannot differentiate between a man and a woman due to their low pixel density.
It also observed that poor quality cameras, or lack of them, coupled with poor lighting, were the cause of many a crime in the city and sought to know what the present lighting standards in Delhi were.
NDMC and Indus in response said there was no public interest in the matter as the dispute in the plea was of a commercial nature.
Rejecting the argument, the court said it has the "duty to secure public interest in commercial disputes".
On May 21, Reliance Jio Infocomm had asked the high court to quash the LoI issued to Indus Towers by NDMC but the bench had then refused to pass interim orders while listing the matter for hearing today.
Reliance, in its plea, had sought a stay on award of contract for the Rs 220 crore project which also includes replacement of streetlights with LED bulbs and putting up CCTV cameras.
However, since LoI had been issued, it amended its plea to challenge the LoI as well.
The project is expected to be fully commissioned in three years, but the tender is for a 10-year period, according to the plea.
Reliance has challenged the tender on the ground that Indus was held as successful as it had submitted a bid for 20 years, while the contract period was for 10 years. "After 10 years, it is the discretion of NDMC to extend it for another 10 years or not," Reliance had told the court.
Advocate appearing for NDMC had earlier said that the LoI in favour of Indus was signed on March 18 as it was successful in the tender process.
He had also said that the decision to award contract to Indus was taken as it offered to pay Rs 4,000 per pole per annum to the civic body as revenue while Reliance had offered only Rs 500 per pole per annum.
Indus Towers is a three-way joint venture among Bharti Airtel, Vodafone India and Idea Cellular in which India's top two cellular service provider hold 42 per cent share each while Idea holds 16 per cent.
The civic agency had earlier invited expression of interest for establishment and maintenance of mesh WiFi network. Later, it had asked the interested parties to assess the feasibility with an appropriate project mix to maximise revenue.
NDMC had then floated request for proposal including comprehensive structure for CCTV, LED bulbs and WiFi street poles, offering them as telecom antennas on a rental. NDMC's ambitious free WiFi project was launched last year in Khan Market and later in Connaught Place.
Like in Connaught Place and Khan market, the WiFi will be free for first 20 minutes irrespective of operators after which the telecom provider's commercial model will become operative.
