The Supreme Court (SC) on Friday cleared the way for New Delhi Municipal Council (NDMC) to proceed with auctioning of the iconic Taj Mansingh hotel in New Delhi.

The apex court's vacation bench headed by Justice L. Nageshwar Rao made clear that they see no reason to interfere with the auction process at this stage.

Earlier, the Indian Hotels Company (IHCL) had moved the SC to challenge a Delhi High Court order that had allowed for the auctions to continue.

Mumbai-based IHCL had argued that SC’s April 2017 judgment, which had allowed hotel to be auctioned, had in the same judgment also directed NDMC to give special consideration to IHCL’s unblemished track record as well as capabilities.

However, IHCL claimed that the tender conditions floated by NDMC, gave no special consideration to IHCL and placed them at par with the other bidders.

The IHCL argued that the failure of NDMC to give additional weightage was in violation of the SC’s April 2017 judgment.

The apex court, however, observed that any special weightage or consideration to IHCL would dissuade other players from participating in the auctions.

It also observed that this was competitive process and that the bench saw little reason to intervene.

The SC also observed that any special consideration that had to be shown by the NDMC could be shown post the auction, and not at this stage.

Post these observations by SC, IHCL proceeded to withdraw their plea before the court.

The developments come on the back of a similar judgment passed by the division bench of the Delhi HC in May, which too had allowed for the NDMC to proceed with auctions.