HC seeks state’s response to PIL on ambulance contract ‘irregularities’
The contract was part of the government’s Maharashtra Emergency Medical Service scheme
MUMBAI: The Bombay high court (HC) on Tuesday sought the state government’s reply to a public interest litigation claiming “gross irregularities” while awarding a contract to a consortium to acquire and oversee a fleet of 1,786 life-support ambulances.
The contract was part of the government’s Maharashtra Emergency Medical Service (MEMS) scheme, which aims to provide pre-hospital health services to patients through lifesupport ambulances.
This includes patients suffering from road accidents and critical diseases. A division bench of Chief Justice Devendra Kumar Upadhyaya and Justice Arif Doctor granted the state and the three-member consortium — comprising Sumeet Facilities Ltd, BVG India Ltd and SSG Transporte Sanitario — four weeks to file their respective replies and posted the matter for further hearing on June 26.
The PIL was filed by Vikas Lawande, a farmer from Shindewadi in the Pune district. According to the PIL, the tender process for the scheme started in August 2023, with a government resolution (GR) approving an annual expenditure of ₹759.56 crore for providing 1,786 life-support ambulances across Maharashtra for 10 years.
Accordingly, on 12 September 2023, a tender was published and bids were invited.
According to the PIL, the bid opening date was postponed twice. On December 30, the tender was abruptly cancelled and a new one was issued five days later. Lawande alleged that certain conditions were changed to favour the three companies to whom the contract was eventually awarded.
The petitioner also claimed that the September 2023 tender document was prepared by Sumeet Facilities and Pradeep Reddy, a person closely associated with the firm.
“This itself goes to show that the tender documents were prepared by these private parties to suit their own interests,” the PIL said.
It added that the formation of the tender committee “was nothing but a farce, and all these acts were preplanned and even the outcome was pre-determined”.
The petitioner said that although the consortium was the sole bidder, no attempt was made to attract more bidders. The PIL added that there was no rationale behind fixing prices for various types of ambulances and the capital expenditure has gone up from ₹241.62 crore in 2014 to ₹1,116.32 crore now.
The court took cognisance of the issues raised in the PIL but discharged Lawande and his lawyer, Suryajeet Chavan, after noticing that the petitioner was affiliated with the Nationalist Congress Party (Sharad Pawar).
“Having regard to the overall facts and circumstances of the case, we are of the opinion that cognisance of the issues raised in the PIL petition should be taken but not at the instance of the petitioner,” the bench said. The court appointed senior advocate Venkatesh Dhond as amicus curiae to assist the bench.