MATOSHRI CHARITABLE TRUST Vs. STATE OF GUJARAT

JUDGEMENT

(1.) By way of this petition under Article 226 of the Constitution of India, the petitioner has prayed for issuance of appropriate writ, direction or order quashing and setting aside the action of the respondents no. 1 and 2 of passing a Resolution dated 9th March 2016 granting permission to the respondent no. 5 herein to operate the Mid-day Meal Scheme for a period of five years and any further action; including issuance of awarding the contract.

(2.) Facts leading to the present Special Civil Application in nutshell are as under : 2. 1 That, the respondents-State authorities awarded a contract for the work of providing midday meal to various Municipal Schools run in the Corporation area of Bhavnagar to the respondent no. 5-Akshaya Patra Foundation. A resolution came to be passed to the aforestated effect on 14th September 2015. Feeling aggrieved by and dissatisfied with the Resolution dated 14th September 2015 awarding contract for the work of providing midday meal to various Municipal Schools run in the Corporation area of Bhavnagar Municipal Corporation to the respondent no. 5-Akshaya Patra Foundation, the petitioner herein preferred Special Civil Application No. 19912 of 2015. That, by a detailed order dated 1st March 2016, the Division Bench of this Court as such dismissed the said writ petition, however, with an observation that in future awarding similar contract would be after inviting all eligible agencies to apply and without isolating some contractors or organizations for consideration. At this stage, it is required to be noted that the decision/resolution dated 14th September 2015 which was to award a contract to the respondent no. 5 was for a period of one year and that came to be confirmed by the Division Bench of this Court. However, it appears that thereafter, by the impugned resolution dated 9th March 2016, the contract period has been extended to five years.

(3.) Feeling aggrieved and dissatisfied with the impugned Resolution dated 9th March 2016 extending the period of contract from one year to five years, the petitioner has preferred the present Special Civil Application making a grievance that the decision to extent the contract period from one year to five years is contrary to the observations made by Division Bench of this Court in its Order dated 1st March 2016 passed in Special Civil Application No. 19912 of 2015.