New Delhi, May 5: The Supreme Court today admitted the petition of Anil Ambani-controlled Reliance Airport Developers, challenging the Centre's decision to award the contracts to modernise the Delhi and Mumbai airports to rival consortia.

Stating that the government decision needs to be scrutinised, a bench headed by Chief Justice YK Sabharwal issued notice on the appeal against the April 21 Delhi High Court order and directed listing of the matter for hearing in the first week of June.

The court asked the Centre and the successful bidders ? the GMR and the GVK-led consortia ? to file their response within two weeks and directed hearing of the matter during summer vacations in view of the importance of the case.

The court noted that several issues like the power to lower the benchmark, the opportunity given to revise the financial bid after opening the tender and the material on which the group of ministers based their findings had to be examined.

The court also raised questions on the expertise of the GoM and the relevance of having an expert committee.

The court, however, refused to pass any interim order in favour of the company. Reliance Airport had sought a stay on the high court order to prevent the government from going ahead with the project.