Tatas withdraw plea from Supreme Court over auctioning

New Delhi: Tata Group-owned Indian Hot-els Company Ltd (IHCL) on Friday withdrew from the Supreme Court a plea challenging a Delhi high court order which had upheld the tender procedure for the proposed e-auctioning of Delhi’s iconic Taj Mahal Hotel by civic body NDMC.

IHCL took back its plea after a vacation bench comprising justices L. Nageswara Rao and M.M. Shantanagoudar indicated that it will not entertain the appeal as the e-auctioning of the hotel has not taken place.

“Abhishek Manu Singhvi and Mohan Parasaran, senior counsel appearing for the petitioner (IHCL) seek leave of this court to withdraw the special leave petition at this stage. The special leave petition is permitted to be withdrawn,” the bench noted in its order.

At the outset, the Tata group firm assailed the Delhi high court order and said the tender issued by New Delhi Municipal Council (NDMC), inviting bids for grant of leave and licence of the hotel situated at No.1, Mansingh Road here, should be quashed as it did not incorporate the apex court’s direction that the “unblemished track record” of the company be considered in the auctioning.

“Do you want extra weightage for this (unblemished track record). Who will then take part in the auction,” the bench asked, adding, “how are you (IHCL) visualising that the NDMC will violate the Supreme Court order.”

“You (IHCL) can come to court later,” the bench said. Mr Singhvi said that the Tata group has been running the hotel for last 40 years and spent a lot of money on it and the apex court had taken note of it while saying that its unblemished record be considered in the e-auctioning.

Later in the day, a Taj spokesperson said that IHCL withdrew the plea since the court “was not inclined at this point to intervene in the ongoing tender process for the licensing rights of the hotel”.   

“We reiterate that the Supreme Court in its order dated April 20, 2017 has recorded that the unblemished track record of Indian Hotels and its capabilities would have to be taken into account by NDMC while taking a final decision; and that NDMC had also stated before the Delhi high court that the Supreme Court order was to be one of the factors which would be taken into account while evaluating the bids,” he said.