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HC declines to intervene in MCD`s Rs 65 crore toll tax bid
New Delhi, Dec 23: The Delhi High Court today declined to stop opening of the tender, scheduled for the day by the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) in a Rs 65 crore toll tax collection contract for the capital, saying it has limited power to interfere in policy matters.
New Delhi, Dec 23: The Delhi High Court today declined to stop opening of the tender, scheduled for the day by the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) in a Rs 65 crore
toll tax collection contract for the capital, saying it has
limited power to interfere in policy matters.
Rejecting the petition of one of the bidder, a bench
comprising Justice A K Sikri and Justice M A Khan said "this
is a policy matter and we don't find any reason to interfere
in it at this stage."
The bench sitting in vacation, was not satisfied with the contention of Delhi Medicos Pvt Ltd (DMPL), one of the bidders, that various queries raised by it about the contract in a meeting with MCD officials on December 16 and in a subsequent letter next day to the corporation, had remained unanswered. The court accepted the MCD counsel Anil Grover's stand that every precaution had been taken by the corporation before arriving at a decision to fix the "minimum reserve" price of the tender for collection of toll tax at Rs 65 crore.
DMPL counsel Sandeep Sethi argued that while the toll tax collection had been declining for the past few years, there was no justification of fixing a minimum reserved price at Rs 65 crore. "The current collection level is at Rs 53 crore and the contractor has to spend huge amount on administrative expenses," he contended. Seeking deletion of solvency clause in the bid, DMPL alleged that MCD had not disclosed the expenditure incurred by it on collection of toll tax ruing previous years.
Bureau Report
The bench sitting in vacation, was not satisfied with the contention of Delhi Medicos Pvt Ltd (DMPL), one of the bidders, that various queries raised by it about the contract in a meeting with MCD officials on December 16 and in a subsequent letter next day to the corporation, had remained unanswered. The court accepted the MCD counsel Anil Grover's stand that every precaution had been taken by the corporation before arriving at a decision to fix the "minimum reserve" price of the tender for collection of toll tax at Rs 65 crore.
DMPL counsel Sandeep Sethi argued that while the toll tax collection had been declining for the past few years, there was no justification of fixing a minimum reserved price at Rs 65 crore. "The current collection level is at Rs 53 crore and the contractor has to spend huge amount on administrative expenses," he contended. Seeking deletion of solvency clause in the bid, DMPL alleged that MCD had not disclosed the expenditure incurred by it on collection of toll tax ruing previous years.
Bureau Report