HC refuses to entertain plea for CAG audit of DIAL, MIAL

The Delhi High Court today refused to entertain a plea seeking CAG audit of the accounts of Delhi International Airport Private Limited (DIAL) and Mumbai International Airport Limited (MIAL) for allegedly causing huge financial loss to the government exchequer.
A bench of Acting Chief Justice Gita Mittal and Justice C Hari Shankar directed the petitioner to make a representation before the Civil Aviation Ministry and disposed of the plea.
The High Court said that both the entities were private parties and no such direction could be given to them.
The court was hearing a plea by advocate Subodh Jain, an RTI activist, who had alleged that "Public Partnership Projects (PPP) of Delhi and Mumbai International Airports ... has resulted in sharp decline in revenue the AAI received from DIAL despite the buoyancy of airport revenues".

It had also sought directions to the Centre to constitute a committee to look into the laws governing the audit of all PPP projects in the country and suggest immediate measures to implement such rules to ensure audit of public money.
The petition had also referred to the Supreme Court's earlier order allowing CAG to conduct audit of the telecom companies whose revenues are shared with the government and of power distribution companies in Delhi in which the government owned stake.

"Audit is necessary to ensure compliance of the revenue share promised by the private operators to the government according to the terms of agreement in PPP projects," it had said.

It had alleged that GMR-led DIAL and GVK-led MIAL are continuously committing irregularities by not sharing the financial details with the Airport Authority of India (AAI) and causing huge financial losses to the government exchequer.
The petitioner had submitted that public land has been given on lease to GMR Delhi and GVK Mumbai at a throwaway price for 60 years, which is against the apex court's judgment in the 2G spectrum case.