STATE OF U. P. Vs. CYBER INFOTEC

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Leave granted.

(2.) The first respondent Cyber Infotec (hereinafter referred to as writ petitioner) filed writ petition under Art. 226 of the Constitution of India in the High Court of Allahabad, seeking issuance of a writ directing the State of U.P. and the Transport Department of the State, not to enforce the condition referred to in cl. 4.2.2(i) of the tender document for the preparation of vehicular smart cards insofar as it requires the insertion of optical strip in the smart card. The provision for issuing the smart card at the time of registration for storing the details set out in the pro forma of the registration certificate (Form 23-A of the Central Motor Vehicles Rules, 1989 ) was prescribed under the said Rules by way of amendments brought out on 31.05.2002. A definition of "smart card" was introduced in R. 2(s), which reads as follows:

(3.) A few days prior to the promulgation of these amending Rules, the State Government (Transport Department) issued a tender notice on 3.05.2002, inviting sealed tenders for preparation of vehicular smart cards which have to include details of registration of the vehicle, permits, fitness, tax and additional tax, status of pollution checks, insurance, challans, status of surrender and other relevant details relating to the motor vehicles, to be issued at all the regional and sub-regional transport offices spread over the State, which are 71 in number. It is stated in the tender notice that the project for issue of vehicular smart card will be implemented on "build, own and operate" basis and all the necessary investment on the project, including site preparation, project implementation and networking will have to be done by the "vendor". The contract is "liable to be reviewed" after five years. It is also stated that the tender and its implementation will be according to the guidelines issued by the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways, Government of India, which by that time had issued certain guidelines in relation to the smart card. According to the schedule of requirement appended to the tender, the vendor shall improvise the sites at the transport offices at its cost in order to undertake the work of preparing vehicular smart cards for the issue of RC books. The vendor is also required to install networking and necessary hardware equipment on its own investment and deploy the necessary manpower at sites for operating the system. Clause 4.2.2 of the tender notice sets out the essential features of the proposed system. The relevant part of cl. 4.2.2 reads as under: