Law firm caught in GMR, govt face-off

The civil aviation ministry has taken strong exception to Amarchand Mangaldas & Suresh A. Shroff & Co., one of the India’s leading corporate law firms, offering legal advice to GMR Infrastructure Ltd and GVK Power & Infrastructure Ltd, companies that lead the consortia modernizing airports at New Delhi and Mumbai, respectively.
That’s because New Delhi-based Amarchand Mangaldas was contracted by the government to prepare the legal contracts and other documentation as part of the privatization of the Delhi and Mumbai airports early last year.
As part of that contract, said two senior government officials familiar with the process and did not want to be identified, Amarchand Mangaldas cannot provide legal services to any bidder in the airports privatization until May.
In what is the latest development in the spat between the government and the GMR-led Delhi International Airport Ltd or DIAL over restructuring of business at the Capital’s airport, the ministry now plans to complain to the Bar Council of India over what it calls a breach of contract and professional misconduct on part of Amarchand Mangaldas.
A civil aviation ministry official said it has been advised by the law ministry that it was “ethical misconduct” on part of the Amarchand Mangaldas to represent “both parties to a contract at different stages.”
25/10/07 Tarun Shukla/Livemint

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Categories: Airports Oct 2007