HC slams NDMC tender process for cricket coaching

Delhi High Court today slammed the manner in which NDMC granted the contract for cricket coaching at Talkatora grounds, calling it "illogical, irrational and absurd" and said it needs to be re-evaluated.
"There is no clarity how evaluation was carried out. Let them (NDMC) re-evaluate properly. As of now there does not appear any rational behind it. It is illogical, irrational and we are finding it absurd. The process is absurd," a bench of justices Badar Durrez Ahmed and Ashutosh Kumar said.
It asked the lawyer for New Delhi Municipal Council (NDMC) to take instructions on what the civic body wishes to do, saying "fact of the matter is it needs to be e-evaluated".

With the observation, the bench listed the matter for hearing on February 13.
The court was hearing a plea by a coaching centre run by an 84-year-old Dronacharya awardee who has alleged favouritism in grant of the contract to IGMA Sports Management instead of his centre, Dronacharya Cricket Foundation (DCF).
In his plea filed through advocates Aditya Chaudhary and Manish Bishnoi, Gurcharan Singh, who runs DCF, has alleged that IGMA is promoted by a cricketer who has no experience in coaching.

NDMC denied Singh's allegations, saying a committee was set up to evaluate all the bids and marks were awarded primarily on the basis of national and international awards won by the coaches and also their trainees.

The Council submitted that based on the evaluation of awards, IGMA had got seven marks and Singh's foundation had got four marks.
The court, however, disagreed with the evaluation process, saying "we are not happy with this".
It said that as per the records before it, none of the coaches of IGMA had won a national award as a coach, while Singh himself got the Dronacharya award, the highest in India in this field.
The bench said if national and international awards were a criteria, then IGMA would get zero marks.
To this IGMA contended that its coaches had won awards and tournaments as players and the tender requirements do not specifically say the coaches have to win awards as coaches.

NDMC then claimed that Singh only gave details and certificates about himself in the bid documents and not the other coaches of his foundation, as was required under the tender conditions.
The court did not agree with this line of argument either, saying that this was not a reason for rejecting the bid of Singh, who claims to have trained international cricketers like Kapil Dev and Kirti Azad.
On the last date of hearing, the court had asked NDMC to bring the documents pertaining to grant of the contract and after perusing them today, it was of the view that the process was "illogical and irrational".