High Court has supported the decision by the Civil Court ruling in the case by the SJ Construction that requested to ban any activity of the Defence Ministry at the former Coast Guard Building.

SJ Construction filed a case at the Civil Court after Rainbow won the bid opened by the Finance Ministry on 19 November 2019 to develop the building with a bid that was MVR 5.5 million higher than the lowest price of MVR 69 million bid by SJ Construction.

And so, SJ Construction asked the court to ban the Finance Ministry and the National Tender Board of the Ministry from moving forward with the project before a court decision on the matter.

However, the Civil Court ruled that they cannot order a stay the Finance Ministry and the Defence Ministry regarding the case and the plaintiff appealed the case at the High Court.

On Thursday, the High Court said that the Civil Court decision has been reviewed and there is no legal reason to overturn the decision.

Regarding the case, the Finance Ministry has previously said that even though SJ Construction lost with the lowest bid to a company that was MVR 5.5 million more expensive was because SJ Construction did not meet the requirements.

The Summary of Procurement Awarding released by the Finance Ministry show 12 companies applying for their bids for the project and the lowest price was MV 69 million by SJ Construction to complete the project in 457 days followed by Rainbow for MVR 74.5 million to be completed in 618.

The Finance Ministry said that the current regulation separate contractors to seven categories and the category SJ Construction is in, is category one that allows a maximum of 300 million at a time with a maximum of eight simultaneous projects.

And SJ Construction was given MVR 310 million for 11 projects currently ongoing before the new regulation was set in place.