Advocates:
['VINAYAK MITHAL', 'ADITYA BHUSHAN SINGHAL', '', 'KAUSHALENDRA NATH SINGH']

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Court No. - 39

Case :- WRIT - C No. - 10658 of 2021

Petitioner :- M/S Empire Transport Services Ltd.

Respondent :- M/S Greater NOIDA Metro Rail Corporation Limited

And Another

Counsel for Petitioner :- Vinayak Mithal

Counsel for Respondent :- Aditya Bhushan Singhal,Kaushalendra

Nath Singh

Hon'ble Mrs. Sunita Agarwal,J.

Hon'ble Mrs. Sadhna Rani (Thakur),J.

1.

Heard Sri Trideep Pais learned Senior Advocate assisted by Sri

Sagar Mehrotra learned counsel for the petitioner; Sri Ravindra Kumar

and Sri Kaushalendra Nath Singh learned counsels for the respondents.

2.

By means of the present writ petition, the notice dated 9.2.2021

issued by the Executive Director, M/s NOIDA Metro Rail Corporation

Limited terminating the Bus Operators Agreement has been challenged.

Further prayers in the writ petition are to restore the bus operations under

the Operators Agreement and issue direction to the respondents not to take

coercive action against the petitioner.

The brief facts relevant to decide the controversy are that the

petitioner namely M/s Empire Transport Services Ltd., a company

incorporated under the Companies Act, 2013 had entered into an

agreement on 15.1.2016 with the NOIDA Metro Rail Corporation

(hereinafter referred to as "NMRC") for procurement, operation and

maintenance of the bus services on City bus routes. The said agreement

(hereinafter referred to as "Operators Agreement") was for a period of ten

years. It is contended that under the Operators Agreement, the petitioner

was required to undertake commercial operation of 100 low floor AC

CNG Buses in NOIDA and Greater NOIDA regions on the routes

identified by the NMRC/respondent no. 1.

As per the averments in the writ petition in order to evade its

liability to make payments under the Operators Agreement, all of a

sudden, 41 show cause notices were issued by respondent no. 1 to the

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petitioner between 3.1.2020 to 12.3.2020, making false allegations of

deviation in service standards on the part of the petitioner and threatening

for penal actions including termination of the Operators Agreement. These

show cause notices have been collectively filed as Annexure-'14' to the

writ petition. The reply to the show cause notices, given by the petitioner,

have also been collectively filed and marked as Annexure-'15' to the writ

petition.

4.

It is contended that a letter titled as Consultation notice dated

16.6.2020 was issued to the petitioner making frivolous allegations of

various deficiencies on the part of the petitioner including service quality

deficiencies in providing the bus services. The petitioner was called upon

to show cause as to why the operators services be not terminated. Two

weeks time was given to the petitioner to submit a reply. The reply to the

Consultation notice had duly been given which is appended as Annexure

'29' to the writ petition.

It is contended that during the peak of pandemic Covid-19, the bus

operators services had been stopped. The Metro Rail services though had

commenced on 7.9.2020 but respondent no. 1 had refused to commence

the associate feeder bus services under the Operators Agreement. Various

communications were made with respondent no. 1 but neither the

petitioner had been allowed to operate the bus services nor outstanding

payments had been released by the respondent no. 1. Resultantly, the

petitioner was constrained to send dispute resolution notice to respondent

no. 1 on 18.9.2020 under Clause 27(a) of the Operators Agreement. No

effort for resolution of the dispute had been made at the ends of

respondent no.1 and it had refused to discharge its contractual obligations.

As a result of it, the petitioner had filed an Arbitration Petition No. 22 of

2020 (Empire Transport Services Limited vs. NOIDA Metro Rail

Corporation Limited) before the Commercial Court, Kasna, U.P. under

Section 9 of the Arbitration and Conciliation Act, 1996 on 30.10.2020. An

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