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ShareMumbai: The state will have to wait some more before it can get the high security number plates (HSNP) it direly needs, especially in the wake of terror attacks in New Delhi and Surat in 2008 where the perpetrators used stolen vehicles. Though other states have already cleared tenders for their manufacture, in Maharashtra the project has been mired in litigation thanks to a queer undertaking given by the state government promising not to finalise the bid it had cleared in 2007 until the cases challenging the bidding process are settled by the court.
The Centre has passed an amendment in 2001 standardising number plates to help curb theft and misuse of vehicles for terror activities. These number plates are tamper-proof and impossible to replicate or forge.
Soon after the state accepted the bid of Schmnit Utsch India Private Limited in 2007, two competing bidders--Aakruti Security Plates Pvt Limited and Promukh Hoffman International Limited--dragged the state to the Bombay High Court challenging the bidding process.
On October 5 that year, the HC recorded the statement of a government pleader who gave an undertaking that the state "would not finalise the tender in question" till further orders. "The court in its order has recorded this undertaking. Hence, we cannot finalise the tender till the matter is disposed off," said Prasad Mahajan, deputy transport commissioner.
Meanwhile, irked by the slow implementation of the project, chairman of All India Anti-Terrorist Front, an NGO, Maninderjit Bitta moved the SC.
After giving two deadlines, on May 8 the SC ordered all states to implement the scheme in six months. However, the states where the scheme is held up because of judicial orders, were exempt from this order.
"Unless the state withdraws its statement before the high court, the project cannot move ahead. The court on its own hasn't issued any stay so far," said advocate Abhay Jadeja, who appears for Schmnit Utsch. The most recent litigation was initiated by Schmnit Utsch who feared a cancellation of the tender and filed a petition opposing any such move. The holiday court on May 25 ordered that status quo be maintained till further orders.
The state has defended the tender process and has pleaded that the petitions opposing it be dismissed. In one reply filed by former transport commissioner S Shinde, it has been stated that any delay in procurement of HSNPs would be detrimental to public interest. The volume of business in this project is estimated to be several thousand crores. The Bombay High Court will hear the petitions on July 27.
