Delhi High Court imposes ₹12.5 crore costs on firm for concealing facts; money to be used for installing smog towers

The Delhi High Court on Wednesday imposed costs of ₹12.5 crore on a private firm, SARR Freight Corporation for concealing facts from the Court. .The Court held the company had concealed information regarding its blacklisting because of which it was declared L-1 bidder for a government project. The Court directed that the money paid as costs should be used for installing smog towers in Delhi which has been gasping for breath due to high pollution levels..A Division Bench of Acting Chief Justice Vipin Sanghi and Justice Jasmeet Singh said that if the company had come out clean and disclosed its blacklisting, it would not have had the opportunity to make a gain of ₹12.50 crore as profit and, therefore, the money should be ploughed back into the society..The bench said that it has come across news reports stating that the Delhi Pollution Control Committee (DPCC) has signed an agreement with Tata and NBCC to install and operate a smog tower in Connaught Place for a cost of ₹20 crore and, therefore, the costs should be used for similar purposes.“…we direct that the entire amount of ₹12.5 crores shall be deposited by respondent No.3 with the Registrar General of the Delhi High Court within 2 weeks from today. The Registrar General will call all the stakeholders and ensure that the smog tower is installed (maybe of a lesser capacity) at a suitable place where it will contribute towards reducing the AQI levels of Delhi. The Registrar shall take steps on a war footing to ensure the installation and operationalization of the smog tower before the advent of winter season as the situation further aggravates during winter months,” the judgment said. The Court also expressed hope that the Delhi Government will provide suitable space for smog towers and in case of financial shortfall it will provide the help, look after the tower’s repair, maintenance and cost of running..The bench was dealing with a petition by a company, CJDARCL Logistics Limited, seeking directions to a government company RITES Ltd to cancel the bids of the private company (SARR) and to award the tender to the petitioner on account of being the L1 bidder.It was stated the RITES had floated an e-tender on August 30, 2021 for engagement of freight forwarder for transportation of export projects. The petitioner participated in the tender.It was petitioner’s case that the RITES first opened the commercial bids in an erroneous manner and then opened the technical bids after which it was declared as L2 bidder while SARR was declared L1.However, the petition alleged that SARR had deliberately suppressed the fact that it was banned by the Ministry of Defence for one year and then by Food Corporation of India and, therefore, it is liable to be disqualified..Though SARR argued that there are status quo orders on the banning orders, the High Court said that the argument was devoid of merit because it did not efface the existence of those orders.It, therefore, imposed costs of ₹12.5 crore on SARR. The Court also imposed a cost of ₹25 lakh on RITES for awarding the tender to SARR despite learning that it was liable to be disqualified under the terms and conditions.“Once respondent No.1 (RITES) learnt that respondent No.3 (SARR) was liable to be disqualified under the terms and conditions, it could not have proceeded to award the contract to respondent No.3 in an arbitrary and discriminatory manner. The petitioner was found to be technically qualified. The respondent no.1 could have proceeded to award the contract to the petitioner, but it could not have awarded the same to respondent No.3,” the Court said. .Cost imposed on RITES has to be paid to the petitioner in the case.The matter will now be considered on July 4, 2022 for compliance of orders. .Advocates Anil Goel and Aditya Goel appeared for the petitioner.Advocates GS Chaturvedi and Shrinkar Chaturvedi appeared for R-1.Senior Advocate Rajshekhar Rao with advocates Nakul Mohta, Parminder Singh, Misha Rohatgi Mohta, Raghav Kacker, Pranjit Bhattacharya, and Moghna appeared for R-3..[Read Judgment]