New Delhi, Feb 18 (PTI) The Delhi High Court Friday refused to entertain a PIL alleging that the agreement between a Reliance Infrastructure subsidiary, Delhi Airport Metro Express Private Limited (DAMEPL) and Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC), pursuant to which an arbitral award of over Rs 4,600 crore was earlier passed against the corporation, was “fraud on public money”.
A bench headed by Justice Manmohan said the PIL, filed by lawyer Manohar Lal Sharma who alleged that the agreement would result in the Delhi metro “going into the hands of Anil Ambani”, was misconceived, half-baked and without any basis.
The bench, also comprising Justice Navin Chawla, said the court cannot examine under PIL jurisdiction the allegations of the petitioner when the contract in question has been scrutinised by the high court as well as the Supreme Court at the time of testing the validity of the arbitral award.
“You can’t come on the basis of a news report to say the contract is vitiated. If we start doing that, what will happen to contracts? According to someone, one clause in a contract may be opposed to public policy and they will start challenging it… Which investor will come to India? We’ll ensure no business takes place in India and only litigation takes place in India and that too PIL. That’s not the intent of PIL,” Justice Manmohan said.
Remarking that many times a public interest litigation (PIL) is filed to kill a good cause by filing a premature plea and getting it dismissed, the court asked the petitioner to avail other legal remedies available to him under the law and come to court after doing some research.
“Have you written to DMRC? Have you given any notice to the other side saying why this was done? Nothing of this sort has been done and you’ve come straightaway to the high court… You have alternative remedies, explore them. This is all half-baked, quite misconceived,” the court stated.
The court clarified that the allegations levelled by the petitioner required a “full trial” and the same cannot be done under the PIL jurisdiction.
The petitioner, who ultimately withdrew the petition, contended that his petition was filed to protect money and the agreement was void.
“Since August 2008, this agreement was signed in collusion, having the object to grab Delhi metro… everybody was hand-in-hand to get this money released and if money is not given fully then Delhi metro is given to Anil Ambani. This is a game. This is proved by the termination clause,” argued the petitioner.
“I will not get a single rupee but public money of Rs 7,100 crore is going. Not only that, interest will be accumulated and Delhi metro will go into the hands of Anil Ambani because of the termination clause,” he said.
The petitioner claimed that the “agreement and release of Rs 7,100 crore under shadow fighting is outcome of corruption and fraud for vested interest” and there is “serious fraud upon the public money which is liable to be investigated and prosecuted u/s 420 and PC Act 1988”.
An arbitral tribunal in May 2017 had ruled in favour of DAMEPL, which had pulled out from running the Airport Express metro line over safety issues, and accepted its claim that the running of operations on the line was not viable due to structural defects in the viaduct through which the train would run.
The arbitral award pertained to a concession agreement between the two entities, which was signed on August 25, 2008.
The execution petition by DAMPEL is pending before the high court. PTI ADS SA
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