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Informist, Tuesday, Nov. 18, 2025

 

NEW DELHI – A division bench of the Delhi High Court Tuesday upheld the order of a single judge of the court validating Delhi Metro Rail Corp. Ltd.'s letter of acceptance choosing Indus Towers Ltd. to install and provision in-building solutions at various metro stations on the Delhi Airport Metro Express Line of the Delhi Metro network. The bench rejected an appeal by Crest Digital Pvt. Ltd., questioning the manner in which the work was awarded to Indus Towers without a competitive bidding process.

 

The bench of Chief Justice Devendra Kumar Upadhyaya and Justice Tushar Rao Gedela said it was a case of failure on Crest Digital's part in meeting contractual obligations under a licence agreement with Delhi Metro Rail Corp. Therefore, the corporation cannot be faulted for awarding certain works as variation to the site, especially as it has to provide flawless metro services and run its own operations smoothly. A well-functioning mobile network is needed not only to provide facilities to commuters but to also run the operations of the metro, the bench added.

 

It was legally permissible for the corporation to have allocated the work by nomination to Indus Towers as special circumstances impelled the respondent to take recourse to direct nomination in place of a tendering process, the bench said. If for any reason mobile connectivity was disrupted, it would become difficult for the metro network to function smoothly as even ticketing would be disrupted with payments through the Unified Payments Interface being impeded, it said.

 

Delhi Metro and Crest Digital had entered into a licence agreement in 2019 to place and operate telecommunication equipment for an in-building solution to provide shared mobile coverage in the tunnel section and five underground metro stations on the Delhi Airport Metro Express line. According to Crest Digital, the contract originally entered into between Delhi Metro and Indus Towers was limited to the installation of towers and masts in outdoor areas of the Airport Express line. However, the scope of the agreement was extended in February to include the in-building solution, the petitioner company said.

 

Crest Digital had argued that the letter of acceptance issued to Indus Towers contemplates payment of licence fees that are far lower than the fees paid by it under its existing agreement with the Delhi Metro corporation. The issuance of the letter to Indus Towers, in effect, renders defunct Crest Digital's licence agreement with the corporation and causes irreparable harm to its established business model, the company said in its petition. 

 

Justice Sachin Datta of the high court had, however, said in his judgment in September that the court could not lose sight of the fact that, despite the passage of more than three years since the launch of 5G services in the capital, Crest Digital had neither installed nor rolled out 5G services. The upgradation of telecom infrastructure is of paramount importance and is an integral and inseparable part of infrastructure work relating to the Delhi Airport Metro Express line, Justice Datta had said.

 

Tuesday, shares of Indus Towers ended 1.9% lower at INR 402.20 on the National Stock Exchange.  End

 

Reported by Surya Tripathi

Edited by Rajeev Pai

 

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