Wednesday, April 26 2006 16:34 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

New Delhi: The Supreme Court today (Apr 26, 2006) fixed May 5 as the date for hearing a petition filed by Anil Ambani-owned Reliance Airport Developers, which has challenged the Delhi High Court verdict upholding the government's decision to allot Delhi and Mumbai airports' modernisation work to rival bidders GMR and GVK led consortia.

The petition was mentioned before a Bench comprising Justice Ruma Pal and Justice Dalveer Bhandari.

The Special Leave Petition (SLP) has been filed against the April 21 verdict of the High Court, which held that the government's action was in no way discriminatory, illogical or illegal.

The High Court at the request of the Reliance counsel has said that the two consortia would not claim any equity or implement the contract during the next two weeks so as to enable it file an appeal in the apex court.

While upholding the technical parameters adopted in awarding the contracts, the High Court had said government and the AAI had absolute discretion to vary the tender requirements or amend the term of RFP (Request for Proposal) as per the requirements of the project.

Reliance has challenged the award of Delhi and Mumbai airport modernisation contracts to GMR and GVK led consortia, respectively, on the ground that the government and AAI had deliberately amended tender norms to favour the rival bidders.

The company has contended that as the originally highest financial bidder for the Delhi airport and being the highest technical bidder for the Mumbai airport, it should have been awarded at least one of the projects.