C H BALAMOHAN Vs. UNION OF INDIA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) W. P. No. 3304 of 2006 is filed by one C. H. Balamohan, who is said to be a Government servant working in the School Education De'partment, Pondicherry, and also the Honorary President of Confederation of Pondicherry State government Employees'Association. This writ petition has been filed in public inter'est challenging the order of the eighth respon'dent dated 3. 6. 2005 wherein a letter of intent was issued for the Development of Port in pondicherry on BOT (Build, Operate and Transfer) basis. The said communication was given to the eleventh respondent and they were directed to submit a detailed Project Report (in short,'dpr') and Feasibility Studies within 45 days'from the date of issuance of the said order. It was also stated that a bank Guar'antee of Rs. 50 lakhs should be deposited with the Government as Earnest Money (in short,'emd'). Subsequent to several proceedings, by an order dated 21. 1. 2006, in G. O. Ms. No. 1, Department of Industrial development (Port), Government of Pondicherry, the ap'proval of the lieutenant Governor of Pondicherry was communicated to the respon'dents 11 and 12, who became the partners in the proposed project and they were directed to enter into a concession agreement along with consortium/partner for the development of the Pondicherry Port and all related and ancil'lary/other activities.

(2.) W. P. No. 12337 of 2006 was filed by one Association in public interest with a prayer to quash the very same impugned order in G. O. Ms. No. 1 dated 21. 1. 2006 as well as the consequential Memorandum dated 24. 1. 2006 wherein the Officers of the Port Department were instructed to list all the existing Movable and Immovable Assets of the Pondicherry Port/port Development, which are under vari'ous officers'custody and the completed lists in all respects should be handed over to the devel'oper, viz. , Subash project and Marketing Limited, eleventh respondent in the earlier writ petition, on or before 30. 1. 2006.

(3.) IT was the case of the writ petitioner that the second respondent pursuant to the guide-lines issued by the Government of India, took up the issue relating to privatisation of Port of Pondicherry and by G. O. Ms. No. 2 Depart'ment of Industrial Development (Port), dated 13. 5. 2003, a committee consisting of Respon'dents 2 to 9 was constituted. By another order dated 20. 8. 2003, the thirteenth respondent, viz. , director of Ports Development, Ministry of Shipping and Surface Transport, govern'ment of India, was co-opted as per the said Committee. Further, the Government of Pondicherry issued an advertisement inviting "expression of Interest" (in short,'eoi') from consultants for the preparation of Feasibility Report for the Development of Pondicherry Port. The said advertisement was published in an all India daily i. e. , "economic times" dated 18. 10. 2004.