The Supreme Court on Wednesday refused to set up a special bench to urgently hear the pending petition of the Goa Government seeking resumption of construction of a greenfield airport at Mopa in the State.
A bench headed by Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi was told by Attorney General K K Venugopal, appearing for the State Government, that the construction of the airport has been stalled for the last ten months and the petition of the State Government is pending before the apex court.
“We are not in a position to constitute a special bench now. Mr attorney, our present
situation does not permit us to do this,” the bench, which also comprised justices S A Bobde and S A Nazeer, said.
One of the lawyers appearing for the firm, GMR Goa International Airport Limited (GGIAL), said that a bench headed by Justice D Y Chandrachud has already heard this petition partly and the matter needs to be concluded at the earliest.
GGIAL had won the bid for the airport under the build-own-operate and transfer (BOOT) scheme.
The bench asked the lawyers to request the presiding judge (Justice Chandrachud) “to release the matter”.