The Puducherry government has submitted before the Madras High Court that it has cancelled the agreements with private partners to develop a Special Economic Zone (SEZ) at Sedarapet-Karasur in the Union Territory. The submission was made when two writ petitions by joint venture partners of the project seeking a direction to the Centre to issue the notification for proceeding with the project, came up for further hearing before Justice K.K.Sasidharan. The petitions had been filed by SPML Infra Ltd., New Delhi and Om Metal Infra Projects Ltd., Jaipur, joint venture partners. On August 6, 2009, the Centre had advised the Puducherry Chief Secretary to cancel the agreement with the strategic partner. There were several infirmities in selecting the strategic partner. The Puducherry government did not follow a transparent bidding process, it had said. The Senior Government Pleader (SGP), Puducherry, T.Murugesan, produced the G.O. dated August 19 and the extraordinary gazette notification of Puducherry cancelling the development and State support agreement, share subscription and share holders agreement executed by the petitioners with the Pondicherry Industrial Promotion Development and Investment Corporation Ltd (PIPDIC) and the lease and possession agreement executed between PIPDIC and the Pondicherry Special Economic Zone Company Ltd, in 2006 and 2008. The SGP said there was no question of issuing a mandamus to the Centre to issue the notification under the SEZ Act because of the cancellation of agreements. The Additional Solicitor-General, P.Wilson, said the writ petitions had become infructuous due to the termination of the agreement.