Court refuses to extend stay on MMRDA decision

Mumbai: The Bombay high court Wednesday refused to ext-end the stay on the Mum-bai Metropolitan Region Development Authority’s (MMRDA’s) decision to fo-rfeit the Rs 200 crore bank guarantee of monorail contractor, LTSE (Larsen and Toubro and Scomi Engineering), for its failure to commence phase two of the monorail corridor.

The LTSE had moved court challenging the dec-ision to forfeit its deposit, and sought a stay on forfeiting of its bank guarantee pending hearing on its petition. The court earlier granted a stay on the act-ion from December 14 to December 19 however wh-en the matter was heard again Tuesday, the HC did not extend the stay. The contractor was terminated from service on December 14 after repeated delay in starting phase two of the monorail corridor.

The petition filed on December 14, asked for an extension in the order to prevent forfeiting the deposited amount. The petition stressed that there was no need to immediately forfeit the amount as a 15 days’ permit was given by the MMRDA in its termination notice to wrap up operations of the monorail.

A source from the legal team of LTSE said, “Jus-tice Patel had granted an injunction which restrai-ned the bank from making any payment to the MMR-DA. The injunction was valid till 5 pm Wednesday. It has been dissolved since the case was not heard on Tuesday (December 18). MMRDA can take over the money now. There is nothing left in the petition.”

The Asian Age was the first to report in its November 28 edition about MMRDA’s decision to sack the firm over non-performance. Following this, a show-cause notice was served to the operator on December 7, instructing it to reply within seven days. However, the operator failed to reply which led the authorities to take over its operations.