BALAJI CONSTRUCTIONS Vs. STATE OF UTTARAKHAND & OTHERS

JUDGEMENT

(1.) All the petitioners before this Court participated for allotment of mining lots for river bed material pertaining to different plots and different river beds in the State of Uttarakhand for a period of five years. We are presently concerned with the mining lots being given in District Udham Singh Nagar.

(2.) Some of the petitioners were mere participants in the auction bid which was done by way of e-auction process. This process i.e. e-auction process was adopted for the first time in cases of mining, in the State of Uttarakhand. Many of the petitioners, made the highest bid and hence call themselves as H-1 bidders and consequently were liable to be allotted the lease, but to the contrary, the State Government has cancelled the entire process. This action has been taken by the State Government on the basis of an alleged complaint, on which a preliminary enquiry was done by the Deputy Director of Mining, State of Uttarakhand, who gave a preliminary finding that the petitioners who had participated for the bid had formed a kind of "cartel" with a common purpose of keeping the final bid amount to as low as possible, which would result in a heavy loss to the State Exchequer, apart from the act being a criminal conspiracy and fraud on the State. The basis on which the preliminary finding was given by the Inquiry Office was that the I.P. address given by each of the petitioners did not tally with the I.P. address which was supplied by the National Informatics Centre to the inquiry officer, thus creating a suspicion that the petitioners have indulged in some kind of surreptitious activity, which may be in nature of a cyber crime as well, as it was with a motive to keep the prices down. Consequent to this preliminary inquiry, an order was passed by which not only the entire process was canceled, but the earnest money deposited by each of the participants has also been withheld till a final decision is taken in the matter and the petitioners have been temporary barred for participating in any tender process relating to mining, in the State of Uttarakhand.

(3.) Pursuant to the preliminary enquiry, the Director, Mining passed orders on 2.2018 and 5.2018, by which he has sent the investigation to the Cyber Crime Cell, Dehradun to verify whether the actual crime as alleged in the preliminary enquiry has been committed or not and till then agreeing with the recommendation of the inquiry officer, the earnest money shall remain withheld and the petitioners shall not be allowed to participate in any mining process in Uttarakhand. In any case, the auction has been cancelled.