PSA SICAL TERMINALS LIMITED Vs. UNION OF INDIA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) V.O. Chidambaranar Port Trust is a major Port Trust. It issued a global tender on 9/4/1997 inviting bids for development of Berth VII as a container terminal and to maintain the same for 30 years on build, operate and transfer basis. The writ petitioner won the bid and was granted the contract. A license agreement was entered into between the parties on 15/7/1998. The agreement envisages a minimum guaranteed traffic royalty in favour of the Port Trust. Clauses 7.3.3, 7.3.4 and 7.3.5 read as under:

(2.) The writ petitioner is thus under an obligation to make a minimum guaranteed payment. The writ petitioner is having certain disputes in this regard and they are presently pending before the Hon'ble Supreme Court in SLP (C) Nos. 33260 and 33261 of 2017.

(3.) The case of the writ petitioner is that when the license agreement was entered into, the draught at the terminal was upto 10.7 meters. In the year 2014, the second respondent developed another Container Terminal, namely Berth VIII. As of now, the draught depth of Berth VIII has been increased to 14.2 meters which is 2.5 meters deeper than that of Berth VII which is handled by the writ petitioner herein. The second respondent has made a statement that there is going to be a further deepening of Berth VIII upto 15.5 meters.