The Supreme Court on Thursday asked the New Delhi Municipal Council (NDMC) to reconsider its decision of auctioning the iconic Taj Mansingh Hotel in wake of the Attorney General and Solicitor General’s opinion not to initiate any such process.
The apex court noted the fact that the opinions of both the top law officers against the auctioning of the hotel was not placed before the Ministry of Home Affairs for consideration.
A Bench of Justices Pinaki Ghose and RF Nariman also took note of the fact that there was also an internal opinion of the top office bearers of NDMC against the auctioning process.
“At this stage, we direct NDMC to reconsider its decision in view of its own internal opinion and the opinions of the Attorney General and Solicitor General. The report should be filed within six weeks,” the Bench said.
During the hearing, the Bench said that “the Attorney General and Solicitor General’s opinion was not looked upon by MHA. You (NDMC) have not placed the opinions before the Ministry concerned. We do not know what the ministry would have said if the opinions were placed before it”.