Bombay high court throws spanner in BEST ad works

Brihanmumbai Electric Supply and Transport Undertaking (BEST) has been restrained by the Bombay high court from finalising the contract for display of advertisements on its fleet of 270 A/C buses.

Justice MN Gilani dismissed an arbitration petition by Topway Multitrade on Friday. Topway approached the high court after BEST in April 2011, arbitrarily terminated its contract for 10 years.
Last month, BEST Undertaking invited fresh tenders from contractors in city newspapers. The Regional Transport Office (RTO) recently directed BEST to remove advertisements from the side panels of all air-conditioned buses.

BEST has been restrained from finalising the award of contract and directed to maintain status quo till June 13, thus allowing Topway to appeal.