NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court has declared that the Adani Port and Special Economic Zones disqualification in view of termination of the contract by Vishakhapatnam Port Trust (VPT) would not come in the way of the company from participating in future tenders.
A bench of Justices M R Shah and Krishna Murari said, "in view of the peculiar facts and circumstances of the case and as agreed between the parties, termination of the Concession Agreement of August 01, 2011 by Visakhapatnam Port Authority shall not be treated as a disqualification or ineligibility of the appellant/petitioner for the purpose of participating in any other tender issued by any public authorities in future."
The order was passed on a plea by Adani Ports against disqualification of its bid for maintenance and upgradation of the Jawaharlal Nehru Port Authority (JNPA) container terminal in Navi Mumbai.
Adani group led by senior advocate Abhishek M Singhvi submitted that the company did not want to participate in the tender process after the JNPA had awarded the contract to some other party. However, he asked the court to settle the principles of law so as to avoid any future disqualification.
JNPA had informed Adani Ports that it was disqualified from participating in other stages of the tender process as it had failed to disclose termination of concessionaire agreement between Adani Vizag Coal Terminal and VPT.
However, Adani Ports stated that the Vizag disqualification for non-disclosure cannot be applied to the present case as the JNPA order nowhere identified non-disclosure as the grounds for disqualification.
The Bombay High Court has upheld the disqualification on June 27, this year. The HC had also imposed a cost of Rs 5 lakh for filing a case that lacked merit.
Singhvi has appeared with senior advocate Neeraj Kishan Kaul on behalf of Adani Ports and Special Economic Zone Ltd, Solicitor General Tushar Mehta for Board of Trustees of Jawaharlal Nehru Port Authority and senior advocates Shyam Divan and Huzefa Ahmadi, represented contesting respondent namely M/s J M Baxi Ports & Logistics Ltd.
