The Supreme Court today asked the New Delhi Municipal Council (NDMC) to reconsider its decision of auctioning the iconic Taj Mansingh Hotel in wake of the Attorney General and Solicitor General’s opinion not to initiate any such process.
The apex court noted the fact that the opinions of both the top law officers against the auctioning of the hotel was not placed before the Ministry of Home Affairs for consideration.
A bench of Justices Pinaki Ghose and R F Nariman also took note of the fact that there was also an internal opinion of the top office bearers of NDMC against the auctioning process.
“At this stage, we direct NDMC to reconsider its decision in view of its own internal opinion and the opinions of the Attorney General and Solicitor General. The report should be filed within six weeks,” the bench said.
During the hearing, the bench said that “the Attorney General and Solicitor General’s opinion was not looked upon by MHA. You (NDMC) have not placed the opinions before the ministry concerned. We do not know what the ministry would have said if the opinions were placed before it”.
It told Additional Solicitor General Sanjay Jain that NDMC has told the ministry that opinions of the AG and SG which have favoured extension of lease, are still awaited.
“It is strange and doesn’t look bonafide. The AG and SG’s opinions should have been placed before the ministry concerned,” the bench said.
It asked Jain whether NDMC agrees to reconsider the decision of going ahead with the auctioning process.
To this, the ASG said, “No, it can’t be done.”
“Why are you not agreeing to reconsider the decision. It not a matter of right. Do you not want to be fair to the party who has been paying the rent constinously for 30 years,” the bench said.
The Tata’s Indian Hotels Company Ltd (IHCL), which has challenged a Delhi High Court order allowing NDMC to auction the hotel here, had earlier told the apex court that it was “not clear” why NDMC wanted to auction the prime property which gave the “best revenue” to it.
