The Hindu : Andhra Pradesh News : Stay on irrigation contracts extended

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Wednesday, Jan 05, 2005

Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh

Stay on irrigation contracts extended

By J. Venkatesan

NEW DELHI, JAN. 4. The Supreme Court today extended the interim stay of the award of 21 major irrigation contracts by the Andhra Pradesh Government involving over Rs. 20,000 crores.

A Bench of Justice N. Santosh Hegde and Justice S.B. Sinha had on December 15 last stayed a judgment of the Andhra Pradesh High Court on a review petition which cleared the decks for the award of the contracts and posted the case for hearing today.

When the matter was taken up by a Bench of Justice D.M. Dharmadhikari and Justice A.K. Mathur, senior counsel K.K. Venugopal, appearing for the petitioner, Dolendra Prasad, Editor of a Telugu magazine, gave an account of the irregularities in the award of the contracts. A battery of senior lawyers led by Fali Nariman and others, appearing for the nine contractors, and the Solicitor-General, G.E. Vahanvati, appearing for the Andhra Pradesh Government, opposed the extension of the stay.

But the Bench, while extending the interim stay, issued notice to the State Government and the nine contractors and posted the case for further hearing in the second week of February. The Bench made it clear that the notice was to the limited question on the powers of the High Court in the review petition. In his PIL, he pointed out grave irregularities and illegalities in the process of selecting and awarding contracts, the arbitrary and irrational grant of exemptions and relaxations that raised serious questions of propriety. The High Court on November 18 last struck down the policy decision and restrained the Government from awarding any of the 26 projects.

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