Mumbai: The Bombay High Court on Friday upheld the contract awarded to Adani Properties Private Limited for the Dharavi slum redevelopment project while dismissing the plea by Dubai-based Seclink Technology Corporation terming it as “misconceived”. The court dismissed Seclink’s plea which alleged that the tender conditions were “tailor-made” to suit the Adani group and oust other bidders.
“the grounds urged in support of the petition lack force and accordingly, the challenge to the impugned action on the part of the respondents – authorities, whereby the earlier tender process was cancelled and fresh tender process has been resorted to, fails,” a bench of Chief Justice DK Upadhyaya and Justice Amit Borkar said.
Seclink had challenged the government resolution (GR) issued on July 13, 2023 by the state housing department formally awarding the project to Adani Properties as the lead partner in the project, and the subsequent work order issued on July 17 last year.
The Adani Group had emerged as the highest bidder for the 259-hectare Dharavi Redevelopment Project. It was declared the highest bidder after it quoted Rs 5,069 crore and with the Rs 2,800-crore payment to the railways, the bid amount stood at Rs 7,869 crore.
Seclink Technologies Corporation was the highest bidder in the earlier tender in 2019 with a Rs7,200 crore bid. It contended that the tender was not awarded following the decision to include railway land in the redevelopment project. It alleged that the government gave away the project to the Adani group “at a loss to the public exchequer”.
However, the State and the Slum Rehabilitation Authority (SRA) submitted that a fresh tender was issued as a fresh 45-acre plot was found in place of the railway land, and Adani qualified for the bid. The state had also said there was a need to issue a fresh tender in 2022 because of several factors such as the COVID-19 pandemic and Russia-Ukraine war which affected the financial and economic state of affairs.
State also claimed that the financial and economic state of affairs in 2019 and in 2022 were “materially” different. However, Seclink refuted the claim saying there had been no material change between the earlier and present tenders as the railway land featured in both.
The State emphasises that the new tender issued to the Adani Group was “absolutely transparent” and “no undue favour” was given to the highest bidder.
In a detailed 76-page judgment, the bench observed that though Seclink was intimated to be the highest bidder, the Committee of Secretaries (CoS) of the state government never decided to declare the petitioner to be the selected bidder. “Merely because certain expenditure might have been incurred by the petitioner, in our opinion, will not vitiate the impugned action on the part of the respondents authorities to cancel the earlier tender process,” the bench said.
The court also noted that three bidders participated in response to the fresh tender, of which two bids were found technically qualified. “Since there were more than two bidders in the field who participated out of which two technically qualified, it cannot be said that the tender conditions were tailor-made so as to suit only a particular bidder,” the court underlined.
Moreover, Seclink chose not to participate in the fresh tender process and therefore, it cannot be permitted to challenge the terms and conditions of the same after opening the financial bid. “Therefore, submissions that conditions of fresh tender were such that they were embodied only to oust the petitioner from participation and to suit a particular tenderer, in our opinion is misconceived,” it added.
A GR was issued way back on February 4, 2004, to redevelop Dharavi as a comprehensive integrated development project and the Slum Rehabilitation Authority was appointed as a Special Planning Authority (SPA). By a GR dated September 11, 2007, DRP was declared as a Vital Public Purpose Project.
