Hyderabad, June 11: A division bench of the Andhra Pradesh High Court, comprising Justice G Raghuram and Justice Naushad Ali, on Thursday made some serious observations against the State government for the manner in which it had awarded contracts to the scam-hit Maytas Infra without inviting tenders. “The State government seems to have an allergy to Constitutional process,” it remarked.
The contracts in question relate to rehabilitation works connected to the Gandikota reservoir in Kadapa. The division bench had earlier stayed payment of bills to Maytas after one Ramesh Reddy filed a public interest litigation challenging the arbitrary manner in which the government had awarded contracts to Maytas. Subsequently, the government and the company moved the court to get the stay order vacated.
During the hearing on Thursday, the government submitted that about 90 per cent of the works were completed but that Maytas couldn’t complete the remaining due to the court order. It contended that the rehabilitation programme would be affected if the works coundn’t be completed before the onset of the monsoon.
Defending its actions, the government further claimed that it had attempted to invite tenders but since there were no takers for the same, the works were awarded to Maytas.
To its repeated plea that the balance of convenience was in paying the bills, Justice Raghuram said, “in a case where the balance of convenience is between the Constitution and the Gandikota dam, this court has no doubt that it is in favour of the Constitution.”
Justice Raghuram wondered how could there be no response to the tender notification and how come people were willing to work after negotiation.
He warned that practitioners of this kind of process will be in peril. “When the hell winds start blowing, you will be nowhere, for smarter and more ruthless players will follow,” he warned.
The bench was confronted with a situation where while the government listed the completed works, the petitioner pointed out incomplete works such as the Obulapuram Community Hall for which bills were cleared. The bench called for measurement books and other relevant records by Monday.
——-Agencies