Above: Taj Mansingh Hotel

The Delhi High Court bench of Justices S Ravindra Bhat and A K Chawla on Tuesday (May 22) gave the go-ahead to the auctioning of Taj Mansingh Hotel while dismissing the plea of Tata Group-owned Indian Hotels Company Limited (IHCL) which had challenged the tender procedure by NDMC for the proposed auction of Taj Mahal Hotel.

The court had reserved the judgement on May 5 after hearing the arguments which claimed that Tatas were not prejudiced in any way.

In April 2017, the Supreme Court had allowed the civic agency to e-auction the Hotel, currently operated by IHCL. “NDMC should take into the account the unblemished records and capabilities of the petitioner while auctioning the property,” the apex court had directed.

IHCL had told the court that NDMC failed to recognize that it had unblemished records. IHCL had also raised questions about the revenue sharing model in the tender document mooted by NDMC and argued that the civic agency will lose money if the auction went through.

NDMC had given Taj Mansingh Hotel for a lease of 33 years to IHCL. In 2011 after the lease expired, IHCL again was given nine temporary extensions since then on various grounds, with three of them granted last year itself.

—India Legal Bureau