AIRPORTS AUTHORITY OF INDIA Vs. STATE

JUDGEMENT

(1.) 1. The applicant is a resident public sector undertaking. The Government of the United States of America through the US Trade and Development Agency (hereinafter referred to as "the TDA"), approached the applicant with a proposal that should the applicant be interested in getting a "feasibility study" conducted of its air-traffic management requirement, the TDA will entirely fund the cost of the study through a grant which is to be utilised as per the terms and conditions laid down by the TDA. The applicant, therefore, entered into an agreement with the Government of the United States through the TDA on March 22, 2001. The TDA has agreed to provide the specified amount of funds (US $ 450,600) as a grant to the applicant for funding a "feasibility study" on the proposed CNS/ATM project in India. The TDA will make disbursement of the grant funds directly to a "contractor" selected to carry out the said feasibility study. The "contractor" will be a US entity. As per Clause 12 of the grant agreement, the grant funds shall not be used to pay any taxes, tariffs, duties, fees or other levies imposed under the laws in force in India.

(2.) The grand funds will be directly disbursed by the TDA to the contractor in USA. The applicant will not, at any point of time, receive any money from the TDA or disburse the money to the contractor. Further, the applicant will not, directly or indirectly, receive any goods or services from the contractor. The advantage to the applicant appears to be that if the applicant desires to set-up/ update the CNS/ATM system, it will have a list of US companies which can provide goods and services for that purpose and also a broad idea of the work and the companies which can execute the same satisfactorily.

(3.) THE contractor will neither set up any office in India nor create any permanent base in India. THE contractor's experts will briefly visit India to seek inputs/feedback. Such visits, though not exactly quantifiable, will be only for a few days.