In a victory of sorts for the NDA and its disinvestment minister Arun Shourie, the Supreme Court today gave its stamp of approval to the sale of ITDC Hotel Agra Ashok to a private party when the BJP-led coalition was in power. Silencing critics of the disinvestment , the court said the entire process was “fair”, “transparent” and fetched the “best price”.

The Supreme Court relied on the by now established law that the scope of judicial review was limited in cases where a policy decision of the government was involved. Rejecting petitions filed by the Hotel employees challenging the sale, the bench of Justices A R Lakshmanan and A K Mathur said “in our view, the decision of the Government of India to divest the property was a policy decision which was not in any manner contrary to the law of the land.”

The bench further said, “since disinvestment was a policy decision of the Government of India. This court has also held that the said policy decision should be least interfered in judicial review”. The judgment referred to the court’s decision in the case of divestment of BALCO when it drew up the limits of judicial review in matters of government policy.

The court also answered charges against the deal. “In the instant case, the Government has acted on advice of experts before taking a decision to disinvest its shares in ITDC Limited. Even thereafter, through a fair and transparent process, the Government has ensured that it has got the best price for its shares.”

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