HC seeks Centre's reply on plea for CAG audit of DIAL, MIAL

The Delhi High Court today sought response of the Centre on a plea seeking CAG audit of accounts of Delhi International Airport Private Limited (DIAL) and Mumbai International Airport Limited (MIAL) for allegedly causing huge financial losses to the government exchequer.

A bench of Chief Justice G Rohini and Justice Sangita Dhingra Sehgal asked the Ministry of Civil Aviation, Airports Authority of India and other authorities to respond by August 24.

The court was hearing a plea by advocate Subodh Jain, an RTI activist, who alleged that "owing to Public Partnership Projects (PPP) of Delhi and Mumbai International Airports it has resulted in sharp decline in revenue the AAI received from DIAL despite the buoyancy of airport revenues".

Senior advocate Atul Nanda and advocate Keshav Mohan, appearing for the petitioner, urged the court to direct 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 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 even of power distribution companies in Delhi in which the government owns a 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 said.

It 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 submitted that public land has been given on lease to GMR Delhi and GVK Mumbai at a throw away price for 60 years, which is against the apex court's judgment in the 2G spectrum case.