With the lease of Taj Mansingh hotel due to expire in October, the New Delhi Municipal Council (NDMC) will in its meeting on Wednesday discuss the issues raised by the Home Ministry on the auctioning of the five-star hotel. In August, the Ministry had issued a showcause notice to the civic agency seeking reasons for abstaining from auctioning the property for a period of two years ever since the expiry of its lease.
“We had replied to the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) seeking some time as we were awaiting the Solicitor General’s opinion on the matter. If the MHA gives us some guidelines suggesting the course of action, we will be able to decide on it. The decision regarding the auction was not taken by the NDMC alone, but by the entire council which has members from different Ministries,” said Jalaj Shrivastava, Chairperson, NDMC.
The MHA in its notice had raised concerns that the provision of the ‘first right of refusal’ will result in a lower bid in the public auction. Besides, the Ministry had also taken exception to NDMC seeking opinion from the Solicitor General. In April, the Indian Hotels Company (IHC), which operates and maintains the Taj Group of Hotels, had approached the High Court to get a stay on the auction of the luxury hotel.
The next hearing of the matter in Court is on November 7. Despite the company not being able to get a stay order from Court, it has, however, given assurance that if NDMC coerces it to vacate the premises, IHC would take legal recourse.