The High Court reserved judgment in a plea filed by Polavaram project contractor Navayuga Engineering Company Limited (NECL) challenging the State government’s termination of its contract, here on Tuesday.
Justice D. V. S. S. Somayajulu heard the arguments of the advocates of the company and the government and reserved the orders.
Former Advocate General Damalapati Srinivas representing NECL, said that the sudden cancellation of the contract had adversely impacted the image of the company. The government was unfair to the company, the advocate argued, and asked the court to order the government to continue the contract.
Mr. Srinivas said that the company did not violate the contract in anyway while executing the work. The government has done injustice by cancelling the contract of a company that was doing work expeditiously and calling for reverse tendering, the advocate argued.
‘No reason assigned’
The company challenged the cancellation of the contract without showing any proper reason.
He told the court that work on the hydel project was delayed because AP Genco failed to identify the land for the power plant in time and not because of any lapse on its part.
Government stance
The government pleader argued that the company should have approached the arbitrator if the government cancelled the contract, but it directly approached the High Court which was most inappropriate.
The government pleader also argued that there were enough grounds for cancelling the contract and pleaded that the court permit reverse tendering in the Polavaram project.
