Kerala - Kochi   

Smart City project: plea to implead in case

Staff Reporter

Kochi: A petition was filed in the High Court on Wednesday by Adhinivesa Prathirodha Samithy to implead itself in a case seeking a directive to the Election Commission to allow the State Government to sign the agreement for setting up Smart City in Kochi.

The petitioner, a non-government organisation headed by M.N. Vijayan, contended that the software firm, which had filed the petition, did not have any locus standi to approach the court.

The court had last week reserved its judgment on the writ petition filed by the software firm functioning at Infopark. In its petition, the software firm contended that the delay in executing the agreement would have far-reaching financial implications on the State. The delay would result in escalation of the cost.

Defending its action, the Election Commission had stated that the decision to execute the agreement for setting up Smart City amounted to financial grant. By directing the state government to defer the execution of the agreement till elections were over, the commission was not interfering with the day-to-day activities of the state government. The direction was issued with the laudable objective of ensuring free and fair elections, Election Commission said.

On other hand, the Government had submitted that it was ready to sign the agreement if the court permitted it to do so. The Government had deferred the signing of the agreement till the elections were over in the light of the Election Commission's directive. The Government had stated that since the decision to sign the agreement was taken much before the announcement of the elections, the signing of the agreement would not be a violation of the Model Code of Conduct.

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