DIGDARSHI WOMEN GROUP Vs. STATE OF CHHATTISGARH

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Petitioner is a Society registered under the Societies Registration Act. As per the pleadings made in the Writ Petition, Petitioner has been engaged earlier for similar work by the respondent- Municipal Corporation. Thereafter, again participated in the tender proceedings initiated by the Corporation for supply of labourers and Supervisor for Department Zone of Municipal Corporation, Bilaspur. Somehow, earlier tender proceedings stand cancelled in its entirety and thereafter, new tender notification has been issued vide Annexure P1 System Tender No.70147, NIT No.1773 dated 21.12.2020.

(2.) Petitioner/Society has filed this Writ Petition challenging tender notification Annexure P1 dated 21.12.2020 seeking following reliefs:

(3.) Submission of Shri Vivek Sharma, learned counsel for the petitioner is that respondent-Corporation has earlier issued Tender Notification for supply of labourers and Supervisors vide NIT-1012 which stands cancelled and on 07.07.2020, fresh NIT No.1134 for Zone-1 and NIT No.18 for Zone-6 were published, which were put to challenge by the petitioner vide WPC-1601 of 2020 and WPC-1732 of 2020 respectively. The Writ Petition was allowed and a direction was issued to Municipal Corporation to permit the petitioner for its participation in the fresh tender proceedings. Said tender proceedings also stand cancelled and thereafter, present tender notification dated 21.12.2020 has been floated for the same work ie "supply of 60 labourers and supervisors for department Zone-1 Municipal Corporation, Bilaspur". Learned counsel submits that in earlier tender notification, there was experience clause as mentioned in Clause 14 (xii) for submission of Experience Certificate of similar nature of work in past three years of value not less than 80% of value of work notified in the tender notification, whereas, in the present tender notification AnnexureP1 respondent-Corporation has amended the said clause of Experience Certificate. It has been mentioned in Clause 13 (xi) wherein the Corporation has asked for the experience certificate for last three years ie 2017-18, 2018-19 and 2019-2020 of the value of similar nature of work should not be less than 60% of the tender amount in each year. He submits that this condition has been inserted in the tender document with an ulterior motive, only to oust the petitioner from participation in the tender proceeding of said work. He further submits that action on the part of respondent-Corporation to amend the 'Experience Certificate' clause is with mala fide intention, only to deprive the petitioner from participation. He further pointed out that in earlier tender proceedings which stood cancelled, petitioner was L1 which itself shows the present action of respondent-Corporation to be arbitrary and with mala fide intention.