Yesterday Supreme Court (SC) gave a verdict which said that totally foreign funded projects will get shield from High Court scrutiny.
In a verdict pertaining to Japan-funded bullet train project, the SC said no company and even Republic of India can be permitted to deviate from any terms and conditions of the agreements including the loan deed about the Mumbai-Ahmedabad rail project.
The top court set aside the Delhi High Court’s verdict in favour of a firm called Montecarlo Limited whose technical bid was rejected by an expert committee appointed by Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) for several works about the Bullet train project. A two judge bench of SC was dealing with the question of whether in the facts and circumstances of the case such a foreign funded- project, the HC was justified in interfering with the tender process in the absence any specific allegations of mala fide and/or favourtism.
The SC further noted that under contractual obligation, it was not open for the appellant-corporation and/or even Republic of India to deviate from any of the terms and conditions of the loan agreement and/or decision of JICA. Therefore, in absence of any allegation of mala fide/arbitrariness and/or favourtism, SC is of the opinion the Delhi HC has committed a grave error in interfering decision taken by JICA, which has been followed by the appellant. One of the Justice’s further commented that the HC verdict was clearly unsustainable and the same deserves to be quashed.
The SC further added in their order that “It can be disputed that Bullet Train project is very important National project,. The project is fully funded, which was envisaged when the Japanese and Indian govts entered into a Memorandum of Understanding, pursuant to which it was agreed that the said project would be fully funded by a Concessional Official Development Assistance (ODA) loan of Rs 1 lakh crores funded by JICA. Such interference by the courts midway and delay in the projects like these which are funded by foreign countries on bilateral mutual understanding/agreement by the developed country to a developing country may affect the future investments/funding”.
It has been seen that ‘ It is difficult for a developing country to go ahead with such a high cost project unless the developed country grants loans/subsidy and/or is ready to fund such high cost projects, any delay in execution of such mega projects, which are very important for a developing country like India, may not be in the larger public interest and nation’s interest.’
Problem in our country is that some politicians and certain NGOs are always there to delay any projects by approaching courts. In my opinion, there should be a law that any project which has received approval from all the agencies and govt bodies, the same project on someone’s whims and fancies can not be challenged in the court of law. As interference by the courts mid-way can delay the projects.
Waiting for your views on this blog.
Anil Malik
Mumbai, India
1st February 2022