SAHITYA SANGAM Vs. STATE OF GUJARAT

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Both these Special Civil Applications are based on identical facts involving common questions of law and identical grounds of challenge seeking directions against the respondents in the matter of purchase of books for children and reference literature for the teachers of primary schools under the "Operation Black Board" Scheme. I, therefore, propose to decide both these petitions by this common judgment and order as under:

(2.) In the daily issue of a local newspaper in Gujarati named, "Sandesh" dated 21st May 1999, an advertisement was issued by the Education Officer (Planning), Primary Education, State of Gujarat, Gandhinagar, for purchase of reference literature for the teachers and literature books for children for the primary schools under the "Operation Black Board" Scheme. As per this advertisement, under the "Operation Black Board" Scheme, books worth about Rs.6 crore relating to literature for children and reference literature books for teachers were to be purchased for primary schools of the State under the District/Nagar Prathamik Shikshan Samities and therefore, the publishers, writers and distributors were invited to send to the office of the Director of Primary Education one copy each of the Gujarati medium books published/re-published on or after 1.1.1996 for the purpose of selection, within a period of ten days. The gist of the conditions as mentioned in this advertisement was as under:

(3.) The petitioners in both these petitions, i.e. ten petitioners in Special Civil Application No.883 of 2000 and four petitioners in Special Civil Application No.1194 of 2000 have come with the case that they had sent their books in response to the aforesaid advertisement. According to the petitioners, the process for finalisation of the purchase of books in response to this advertisement was taken up in February 2000. As per the facts stated in Special Civil Application No. 883 of 2000, there were about 125 appliers and the respondents nos.1 and 2 chose the publishers/sellers of their favour. The petitioners have arrayed some of them as party respondents nos.3 to 6. It is alleged that these respondents and their sister concerns and connected publishers/sellers had participated in this process and they had given the offers with dummy names and the offers of respondents nos.3 to 6 and their associates have been accepted and the orders of books to the tune of 60% of the total purchase price of Rs.6 crore was likely to be issued shortly. According to the petitioners, the respondents nos.3, 4 and 5 and their associates were to get orders of Rs.1.25 crore each and the respondent no.6 was to be given the order of Rs.62 lakhs. It has also been stated that despite the specific mention in the advertisement that the books of the regional writers will be given preference, the translated version of the books written by non-regional writers published by the publishers outside the State had been selected, with the result, the writers and publishers of the Gujarat State are ignored. It has been alleged that a book titled as, "Israel" has been selected for this purchase which has no relevance of study for Std.I to VII, that the said book is selected only because it is written by the husband of the present Education Minister, while the Education Minister is directly connected with the purchase of these books. In the end of para 10 of this Special Civil Application, the petitioners have gone to the extent of stating that even if this book was relevant for the children studying in Std.I to VII, this book ought not to have been selected as per the norms. It has been stated that although under Condition no.7, the 'Book Selection Committee' is empowered to select or refuse the book, but the Government did not declare the names of the members of the said Committee; that there must be transparency in the process and the action of the Government, the well-known authors on children literature, the well-known regional writers and the leading educationists should have been taken in the 'Book Selection Committee', but the Government had not followed these norms. It has been then stated that Gujarati literature and Gujarat writers have put a landmark and some of the Gujarati writers have received 'Gyan Pith' award which is the highest honour in the field of literature; that there are well-known Gujarati writers such as Raghuvir Chaudhary, Chandrakant Bakshi, Mohammad Manka, Gunvant Shah, Manubhai Pancholi, "Darshak" Bhagwatikumar Sharma and there are well-known Gujarati writers of children literature like Yashwant Mehta, Jivram Joshi, Hariprasad Vyas, Jyotish Jani, Yashwant Kadikar and many more, but the Government did not think it fit to take any of these writers in the 'Book Selection Committee.' It has been then stated that the said Selection Committee did not even think it desirable to select any book of the aforesaid writers and has thus insulted the aforesaid well-known writers of Gujarat State. The majority of the books which have been selected are written by non-regional authors and their translated versions have been selected and the same have been published by the publishers other than those of Gujarat State. It has also been stated that the publications of some of the petitioners have got great honour from the other States and their books are translated in other languages and the series of books have been selected by the National Book Trust of India and the leading English nespapers have received these books and yet the same do not find place in the books selected for purchase by the Selection Committee. It has also been alleged that the said scheme was announced by the Central Government and the same is in operation for more than five years and while implementing this scheme, the State Government ought not to have acted in such an arbitrary and illegal manner for the purpose of favouring anybody. It is then alleged in para 15 of this petition that by influence of the Partner of respondent no.3 Firm, Mr.Pravin Mohanbhai Mankadia, who is the sitting Member of Legislative Assembly from Upleta, Dist. Rajkot, has worked favourably and has, along with his associate publishers, received an order to supply the books worth Rs.1.25 crore. It is also alleged that the respondents nos.4 and 5 and their associates are connected with the high ranking officers in the Education Department and they have also been selected for orders for purchase of books and that it is a case of nepotism writ large in the matter of selection of the books of the personnel and connected persons, may be by corrupt motives. It has also been stated that the advertisement issued in the name of Mr.V.P.Dhamecha, Education Officer (Planning) and said Mr.Dhamecha was transferred from this post and one Mr.B.K.Maru was appointed vice him, but within a short period, Mr.Maru was also transferred and Mr.B.D.Barot was appointed on the said post and immediately after his appointment, the deal was finalised and within a span of nine months, three officers have been changed and this itself smacks of malafide and arbitrary exercise of powers. It has been alleged that the dictionaries of five types have been selected for this purchase and the price varies from Rs.35.00 to Rs.600.00 and the order for the said different types of dictionaries are to be issued for a sum of Rs.1.30 crore.