Bombay High Court: The Division Bench of G.S. Patel and Madhav J. Jamdar, JJ., passed an interim order in the dispute going on between MEP Infrastructure Developers Ltd. and South Delhi Municipal Corporation (SDMC). Among other directions, the Court has directed MEP Infrastructure to refrain from taking any action towards disposal of or creation of any third party rights in respect of its immovable properties in Maharashtra.
Factual Background
SDMC being a statutory body is liable to collect toll taxes from vehicles entering into Delhi. It is one of the major sources of revenue for all the Municipal Corporations of Delhi. In order to collect such taxes SDMC had, by way of a tender process, awarded a contract to MEP Infrastructure Developers Ltd. at the highest bid of Rs. 1206 Crore per year for a period of five year.
MEP faltered in timely payment of the Rs. 1206 Crore divided on a weekly basis. After which SDMC started to recover the toll amounts from MEP.
The Commissioner of SDMC by exercising his powers under the DMC Act sought to recover toll tax by attachment of properties of MEP in Delhi and beyond.
In such exercise, SDMC successfully reached the doors of MEP in Maharashtra and obtained an order from Bombay High Court in October 2021, where the Court had directed the local authorities to recover the monies against MEP as per the law. In such exercise, the local authorities of the respective district in Maharashtra have already attached a few properties of MEP.
However, to obstruct such exercise of recovery by SDMC through local functionaries, MEP filed another writ petition before Bombay High Court.
Present Status
High Court by this interim order directed MEP to refrain from taking any action towards disposal of or creation of any third party rights in respect of its immovable properties in Maharashtra. Further, High Court directed MEP to maintain balances in its Bank accounts as on date as a security towards the amounts due.
Petitioners were also directed to affirm and keep ready an affidavit attaching bank account statements for the last six months and directions in that regard will be issued on 31-1-2022, if necessary.
The matter is to be listed on 31-1-2022. [MEP Infrastructure Developers Ltd. v. South Delhi Municipal Corpn., 2022 SCC OnLine Bom 133, decided on 14-1-2022]
Advocates before the Court:
Mr Ravi Kadam, Senior Counsel with Mr Venkatesh Dhond, Senior Counsel with Dr Abhinav Chandrachud, Rashmin Khandekar and Tanmayi Rajadhyaksha with Deepak Deshmukh i/b Naik Naik and Company for the Petitioners.
Mr Gaurav Joshi, Senior Advocate and Garima Parshad i/b Sanjay Vashishtha, Shreyas Shrivastava and Dishya Pandey for Respondent Nos 1 to 5.
Mr S S Panchpor, AGP for the State/Respondent No 6. Mr Ashutosh Gole, for Respondent No 7.