CHAUCER CAPITAL LIMITED Vs. MAHARASHTRA MARITIME BOARD

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The petitioner herein is before this Court seeking reliefs as under :

(2.) The petitioner being a private equity fund known as "Chaucer Capital Limited" incorporated under the laws of the United Kingdom is before us. The first respondent is the Maharashtra Maritime Board (for the sake of convenience and brevity referred to as "MMB'"), a statutory Board constituted under MMB Act. The second respondent is the Minister (Ports) Home Department, Government of Maharashtra. Third respondent is JSW Infrastructure Limited, a Company registered under Companies Act of 1956. Contention of the petitioner:-

(3.) In pursuance of the policy of Government of Maharashtra dated 15th March 1996, so far as the construction of jetties and multipurpose ports, such construction was to be given to private sector in order to develop non-major ports (for short "1996 Policy"). Alewadi was considered as a promising site in Tarapur area for establishment of multipurpose port. When no satisfactory responses were received for global tenders for development of Alewadi port, the methodology evolved for the development of ports was through Memorandum of Understanding. Accordingly, Government of Maharashtra evolved procedure for selection of developers; one for 'Self-controlled Captive Jetty', another for 'Multipurpose Jetties and Cargo Terminals'(for short "2005 Policy"). Initially, several developers expressed their interest so far as development of Alewadi port, but in due course of time, they withdrew their offers. In the year 2006, petitioner learnt that Alewadi project was still available. Therefore, on 6 th January 2007, petitioner expressed its interest to develop an All Weather and Multipurpose port at Alewadi with the coordinates "latitude 19? 46" 30 North and longtitude 72? 50 East".