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2. The genesis of the controversy raised in this petition lies in a decision taken by the Government in September, 2003 for modernizing and upgrading the Indira Gandhi International Airport at Delhi and the Chatrapati Shivaji International Airport at Mumbai through what is described as "Joint Venture Route" by formation of separate companies between Airports Authority of India and a joint venture partner. The first step taken in that direction came in the form of the Government constituting an Empowered Group of Ministers (hereinafter referred to as EGoM) which was some time later reconstituted to comprise Minister of defense, Minister of Finance, Minister of Law & Justice, Minister of Commerce and Industry and Minister of State Civil Aviation.

1. FIRST CLAUSE: OBJECTIVES AND SCOPE 1.1 The objective of this Contract is, in the process of modernization and restructuring of Mumbai and Delhi airports (Transaction), to provide Technical Advisory Services by GTA to assist and advise the Ministry of Civil Aviation ("MCA"), AAI and the Financial Consultant and other designated members of the Transaction team.

49. The terms of reference enclosed with the contract document are also to the same effect and envisaged assistance and advice to be tendered by the consultants to the Ministry of Civil Aviation, the AAI and the financial consultants and other designated members of the transaction team. We may, in this regard, extract the following passage from the terms of reference forming part of the contract executed with the technical advisers :

The consultants were directed to rework their evaluation based on a strict adherence to the RFP criteria and submit their findings today itself, in the form of a matrix to the Ministry of Civil Aviation. It was also decided that the matrix submitted by the consultants would be circulated to all the IMG members for their perusal. The next meeting of the IMG would be held on 12th December, 2005 at 1730 hours to discuss the said matrix as also bidder specific queries pertaining to the Offers.

66. Based on these deliberations held by the IMG in the meetings aforementioned and the discussions which they had with the consultants on various aspects, the members of the IMG expressed their views in writing on the kind of report which should go to the EGoM. A reading of the minutes of the IMG meetings held between 12th to 16th December, 2005 would show that serious concerns had been expressed by the Member, Planning Commission, the representative of the Ministry of Law, Chairman, Airports Authority of India and Member Finance, the Financial Adviser of Ministry of Civil Aviation and the Joint Secretary (DEA). All these were collated for submission to the EGoM along with a note prepared by the Chairman of the IMG. We need not advert here to the views that were expressed by the members or the broad areas in relation to which the same were expressed. Suffice it to say that issues not only regarding development plans submitted by the bidders, but those relating to the method of evaluation and the weightage and allocation of marks were raised. Issues relating to a possible fresh evaluation of the bids by an agency/committee to be appointed by the Government of India were all also raised and articulated by the members of the IMG.

120. The Committee of Secretaries and the Ministry of Civil Aviation were not, however, impressed by that suggestion. For Delhi Airport, they had recommended development through joint venture route after negotiation with the technically qualified bidder. In so far as the Mumbai airport was concerned, the COS and MOCA had recommended that the said Airport be included in the next round of bids to be invited for airport modernization along with Chennai and Kolkata. They had also said that the GETE's recommendation for adopting the SPV route may be examined by the Planning Commission in consultation with the Ministry of Civil Aviation as a possible alternative for modernization of airports.