Take A Decision On Granting Sanction To Attach DMRC's Assets For Payment Of Unpaid Dues To Reliance Infra: Delhi High Court Directs Centre

Delhi High Court on Monday directed the union government to take a decision whether it proposes to accord sanction under Section 89 of Delhi Metro Railway Act, 2002, for attachment of the movable and immovable assets of DMRC for satisfaction of the amounts payable under a 2017 arbitral award to Reliance Infrastructure-promoted Delhi Airport Metro Express Private. Delhi High Court on Monday directed the union government to take a decision whether it proposes to accord sanction under Section 89 of Delhi Metro Railway Act, 2002, for attachment of the movable and immovable assets of DMRC for satisfaction of the amounts payable under a 2017 arbitral award to Reliance Infrastructure-promoted Delhi Airport Metro Express Private Ltd. Justice Yashwant Varma on February 17 had impleaded the Union of India through the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs and Delhi Government through its Chief Secretary in DAMEPL’s petition seeking enforcement of the arbitration award. Section 89 The provision provides that "no rolling stock, metro railway tracks, machinery, plant, tools, fittings, materials or effects used or provided by a metro railway administration for the purpose of traffic on its railway, or its stations or workshops, or offices shall be liable to be taken in execution of any decree or order of any court or of any local authority or person having by law the power to attach or distrain property or otherwise to cause the property to be take in execution, without the previous sanction of the Central Government." Observing that before it proceeds to deal with the objections pertaining to limited liability principal and on the issue of whether circumstances warrant lifting of the corporate veil, the court said: "It would appear expedient to call upon the government to take a decision whether it proposes to accord sanction for the attachment of movable and immovable assets of the corporation for the purposes of satisfaction of the amounts payable under the award."