AMAN HOSPITALITY PVT LTD Vs. DELHI DEVELOPMENT AUTHORITY

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The petitioner being aggrieved with the rejection of its bid in respect of Hotel plot No.01, Central Business District (East), Shahdara, Delhi, has filed the present writ petition seeking mandamus or any other direction for quashing the order of the respondent with further direction for the approval of the bid of the petitioner in respect of the said plot being the highest bidder. The brief facts which are not in dispute, inter alia, are that pursuant to the advertisement by the Delhi Development Authority (hereinafter referred as "DDA") for holding a public auction for the sale of nine Hotel plots, the petitioner had participated in the auction held on 03.03.2006 in respect of the said plot at Central Business District (East), Shahdara, Delhi measuring 20,000 sq. mtrs. Reserve price of this plot was fixed at Rs.167.40 crores @ Rs. 83,700/- per sq. mtrs. of the plot area and Rs.37,200/- for the built-up area. The petitioner gave bid at Rs.170.001 crores which was admittedly the highest bid in respect of the said plot in question, and as per the terms of the auction the petitioner had deposited an amount of about Rs.42.5 crores being 25% of the bid amount. After expiry of more than one month from the date of auction, the petitioner was informed by the DDA through their letter dated 04.04.2006 stating that the bid offered by the petitioner was not approved by the competent authority, i.e., Vice-Chairman, Delhi Development Authority/respodnent. Since there was no reason or ground contained in the said letter rejecting the bid of the petitioner, therefore, the petitioner sought to know the reasons by taking recourse under the provision of Right to Information Act and through this process, the petitioner came to know the detailed history of various bids as invited by the DDA in respect of the same plot prior to the aforesaid bid in question. The petitioner has given details of all these bids and the same are reproduced as under:- <FRM>JUDGEMENT_1480_ILRDLH15_2006Html1.htm</FRM>

(2.) The petitioner further states that the reserve price of Rs.167.40 crores of the bid in question was fixed by the DDA after wide consultations and with due diligence and after taking into account various factors including current market price of the land in the area, size and usage of the plot and the said reserve price was almost double to the reserve price which was fixed for the open public auction dated 22.03.2004, in response to which no bid was received by the respondent. The contention of the counsel for the petitioner is that in all the five previous auctions when tenders/bids were invited, no response was received by the DDA and when the petitioner had given the bid for a price more than the reserve price, its bid has been arbitrary rejected without any ground or reason. The counsel for the petitioner has also taken us through the relevant proceedings of the DDA concerning the auction of this plot which clearly shows that at every step approval to the said bid of the petitioner was accorded except when it reached to the Member (Finance) who vide his note dated 23.03.2006 opined that the bid price of Rs.37,778/- per sq. meter in respect of the said plot in question, appeared to be on the lower side. The Member (Finance) took into consideration the price range of Rs.75,960/- per sq. meter to Rs.1,26,068/- per sq. meter fetched by the DDA for some Shopping/Office plot in Kondli Gharoli (East Delhi) in the commercial auction held on 23.03.2006 and based on this opinion the DDA was advised to re-auction the plot in question for realizing the alleged real value of the said plot.

(3.) To properly appreciate the stand of the DDA, it would be relevant to reproduce the following paragraph from the proceeding-sheet of the DDA which has been taken out from page 78-A of the paper book:-