Railways’ tourism arm to run luxury train: Apex court (Lead)
January 12th, 2012 - 10:48 pm ICT by IANS ( Leave a comment )New Delhi, Jan 12 (IANS) The Supreme Court Thursday said the Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corp (IRCTC) will continue to operate the high-end luxury train Maharaja Express after the railways terminated its arrangement with travel agency Cox and Kings for jointly operating and managing India’s first pan-country super luxury train.
The apex court bench of Justice Altamas Kabir and Justice J. Chelameswar passed the interim order after it declined the plea by senior counsel Mukul Rohtagi appearing for the travel agency to stay the Jan 6 Delhi High Court verdict allowing the IRCTC to operate the train.
Issuing notice to the IRCTC, the apex court said that the high court order permitting it to operate the Maharaja Express would continue.
The court fixed Feb 9 as the next date of hearing, asking the IRCTC to file its reply. Cox and King was told to file its rejoinder once the IRCTC reply was filed.
The apex court gave its interim order allowing the continuation of the operation Maharaja Express by IRCTC after Solicitor General Rohinton Nariman told the court that the IRCTC was the owner of the train and had spent nearly Rs.50 crore on luxury fittings.
The solicitor general said that the arrangement with Cox and Kings was terminated as the company was allegedly making profits and starving the joint venture company.
The policy of the Cox and Kings was to “take out as much and starve the joint venture company”, Nariman told the court, adding that the travel agency was making money “surreptitiously”.
Nariman told the court that Cox and Kings had to pay huge amount of money to the joint venture company.
Assailing the high court verdict, Rohtagi told the apex court that the train was managed and operated by the joint venture company with equal participation of his client Cox and Kings and the IRCTC and the the arrangement was valid for 15 years.
Senior counsel told the court that there was no provision which provided for the exit of his client from the arrangement to jointly manage and operate the high-end luxury train.
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Tags: amount of money, apex, apex court, court bench, court verdict, cox and kings, crore, delhi high court, indian railway, irctc, joint venture company, kabir, luxury fittings, luxury train, nariman, railways, rejoinder, senior counsel, solicitor general, travel agency
