DMRC slammed for 'illegal' kiosk allotment

The Delhi High Court has slammed the process followed by the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) for allotting spaces in Metro stations for setting up commercial kiosks. Harish V Nair reports.

The Delhi High Court has slammed the process followed by the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) for allotting spaces in Metro stations for setting up commercial kiosks.

A public interest litigation complained that the corporation had allotted 37 sites for setting up kiosks to one Hudson News Café without floating a tender, even though many other parties were interested in these spaces.

"You called only this particular party for allotting the space? You should have followed the tender process," a bench of chief justice D Murugesan and justice VK Jain told the lawyer for the corporation.

The court refused to quash the allotment of kiosks to Hudson but made it clear to the DMRC that all future allotments should be done through auction or tender.

"Allotments can only be made through a tender as there will be transparency," the court added.