At the root of the clash is the custody of sensitive documents pertaining to the General Consultancy bids for the capital's Mass Rapid Transport System (MRTS). The DMRC is the nodal body set up by the Government to construct the MRTS, estimated to cost around Rs. 23,000 crore.

Over the past few weeks, the Minister's office and Sreedharan have been engaged in an unpleasant war of words, shooting off letters accusing each other of exceeding their brief on the issue.

The controversy surrounding the General Consultancy award for the Rs.4500 crore forms the basis of the new round of confrontation. Taking the view that there was lack of transparency in the manner in which the tenders were scrutinised by DMRC, Jethmalani had asked Sreedharan to furnish all the documents pertaining to the bid tothe ministry in July this year.

But the DMRC managing director refused to hand over the documents on the grounds that DMRC, being was an autonomous body, was not bound to hand over any confidential documents to the ministry for scrutiny. Sreedharan, instead, offered to furnish all the relevant documents pertaining to the General Consultancy bid to the Empowered Committee of Secretaries headed by Cabinet Secretary Prabhat Kumar.

This triggered off the clash, with the Minister's office taking the view that DMRC, though a company floated by the Government, functioned very much under the over-all supervision of the Urban Affairs Ministry and as such, it was obliged to handed over the documents and any other information the Ministry may seek from it.

Official letters sent by the Minister's office have accused Sreedharan a former Railway Engineering Service officer and veteran of the Konkan Railway Project -- of ``gross insubordination'' and questioned his motives in refusing to cooperate with the Ministry.Sreedharan, on the other hand, has charged the Minister's office of using `impertinent' language and threatened to complain to the Cabinet Secretary if he was not treated properly.

Jethmalani was not available for comment as he was out of the city. Neither was Sreedharan but an official spokesman for DMRC said, on his behalf, that the voluminous documents were sensitive in nature and the property of DMRC. He confirmed that the documents had not been handed over to the Ministry but had been `shown' to the Minister on a couple of occasions.

Jethmalani had earlier written to the Prime Minister on the MRTS project, demanding an inquiry into the manner in which the bids were handled. He had also clashed on the same issue with Secretary Kiran Aggarwal, who was the ex-officio chairman of DMRC. Aggarwal has now been replaced by Special Secretary S S Chattopadhyay as DMRC chairman.