Hindustan Times | Proposed amendment in Metro Act may not stand judicial scrutiny: Law ministry

Apr 18,2023

A proposed amendment in the Metro Railways (Operation and maintenance) Act of 2002 can be challenged in the court and “may not sustain judicial scrutiny”, the Union law ministry said in its comments on the draft, officials aware of the matter said.

The Union ministry of housing and urban affairs (MoHUA) had proposed amendment in Section 89 of the Act to prevent attachment of properties or bank accounts or any assets of Metro railways across the country. The ministry had circulated the draft amendment for inter-ministerial feedback on March 17.

Noting that the grievances of contractors engaged by Metro railway administrations “should not (be) left remedyless”, the law ministry said that the MoHUA would have “duly considered” these issues while proposing the amendments.

The housing ministry officials did not comment on the feedback by the law ministry.

The amendment was proposed after the Centre told the Delhi High Court in March this year to refrain from giving sanction to attach immovable and movable assets of Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) to pay the arbitration amount to the Delhi Airport Metro Express Private Ltd (DAMEPL).

DMRC had signed a contract with DAMEPL in 2008 for designing, installing, commissioning, operation and maintenance of the Airport line, but it invoked arbitration in 2012 after DAMEPL pulled out of running the Airport Express metro line over safety issues. An arbitral tribunal in May 2017 ruled in favour of DAMEPL, also accepting their claims that running the operations on the line was not viable due to structural defects in the viaduct through which the train would pass.

On March 10 last year, the Delhi high court directed DMRC to pay the over ₹4,600 crore as arbitral award, along with interest to DAMEPL in two equal instalments within two months.

The proposed amendment seeks deletion of Section 89(2), implying that any Metro railway organisation would be beyond the purview of courts when it came to execution proceedings, unless it voluntarily gave its consent.

In an office memorandum passed by housing ministry on March 17 (HT reported on March 29), the central government stated that attaching DMRC’s assets in the matter would entail closure of the DMRC, bringing the city to a halt and impacting lakhs of people across NCR.

“A situation of this kind would not only cause inconvenience to lakhs of common people of Delhi-NCR, but also lead to an alarming situation where law and order in the city would be at stake. The central government being a custodian of the public good cannot allow such a lethal situation to rise,” the office memorandum said, seeking comments on the proposed legal amendments from within the ministry.

Urban development minister Hardeep Singh Puri had on March 6 described the Delhi metro as the lifeline of NCR and directed officials to revisit the act and ensure no such property could be attached in the future.