Mohali deputy mayor challenges road tenders for Rs 790 crore

He also pointed to at least one road section where work initiated in 2023 was still ongoing, yet the same stretch had been included in the new tender. According to the petitioner, issuing a fresh tender for recently completed or ongoing works would lead to a substantial loss to the state exchequer.

Punjab Advocate General M S Bedi questioned the maintainability of the PIL, arguing that the petitioner, a serving deputy mayor of the Mohali Municipal Corporation and a senior Congress leader, had concealed his political antecedents from the court. He contended that under the High Court’s Public Interest Litigation Rules, 2000, a petitioner is required to disclose political affiliations and background, and alleged that the petitioner had failed to do so.

Deputy Advocate General Salil Sabhlok pointed out that an association of GMADA contractors had filed a similar petition and this was a proxy litigation.

To this, the deputy mayor’s counsel pointed out they had filed many PIls in the past and he had written about the petitioner being a deputy mayor. He said they he would be satisfied if GMADA could state on affidavit that all these roads needed to be recarpeted.

The bench adjourned the matter, granting time to the parties to address the maintainability issue and other objections raised by the respondents.