MANOJ VINAYAKRAO GHODKAY Vs. STATE OF MAHARASHTRA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The petitioner who is a social as well as political activist has filed present Public Interest Litigation for following reliefs :-

(2.) The petitioner contends that he has registered himself as a contractor being an unemployed engineer and has undertaken various government as well as private works during last more than 20 years. However, he has not renewed his licence as unemployed engineer and has stopped working as contractor since 2019. Now, he is in real estate. Zilla Parishad, Aurangabad i.e. respondent No.4 had issued a tender for construction of its administrative building at Aurangabad. It is alleged that respondent No.4 was guided by political persons, who were interested in allotting the said work to a particular agency and respondent No.5 - Aurangabad Municipal Corporation through its officials had connived with respondent No.4 as well as the successful bidder by issuing certificates, which do not reflect correct factual position. Therefore, the petitioner had made complaints to the Hon'ble Chief Minister of the State and only superficial inquiry is shown to have been made. As no effective steps were made to unearth the illegalities, the petitioner has filed the present petition. It has been specifically contended that the petitioner has no personal interest in the matter, but being the tax payer citizen of the town, he want the redressal of the grievance of the public at large.

(3.) It is contended in the petition that the facts emerging for lodging the petition was that the government had taken a decision to construct new administrative building for Zilla Parishad, Aurangabad admeasuring 10838.96 square meters i.e. approximately 1,16,650 square feet in ground plus four stories as well as electrification of works, installation of solar plant, inbuilt furniture and firefighting equipment. The total construction cost worked out was Rs.20,99,70,000.00, but notwithstanding the said higher rate, the construction cost that was worked out by the respondents was to the tune of Rs.37,83,73,333.00, which was double the actual cost of construction. Respondent No.1 had floated tender through additional CEO on 12/7/2021 in the newspaper by prescribing 19/7/2021 to be the last date for submission of online tender form. However, that tender notice came to be cancelled on the ground of error as well as for administrative reasons. Thereafter, another tender notice was published by respondent No.4 in July, 2021. The tender conditions prescribed were removed from the website and, therefore, the petitioner was handicapped to download those tender conditions, however, some of them have been downloaded by him. He has quoted certain conditions and submitted that the successful bidder as well as another bidder submitted certificates of the bank on a plain paper without putting any date thereon. The bank certificates are therefore said to be forged. The petitioner has harped upon Clause 4.5 (A) (b) and submitted that as per the said requirement, last five years as prime contractor regarding completion of those works was made compulsory. The successful bidder was M/s. N. K. Constructions Limited, who was given certificate by respondent No.5 stating that the said condition was fulfilled. It has been tried to be demonstrated as to how the construction made by said M/s. N. K. Constructions Pvt. Ltd. in respect of Solid - Waste Management Project is incomplete and not as per the requirement. It has also been tried to be demonstrated as to how M/s. N. K. Constructions Pvt. Ltd. is not a fit body for executing the said work of construction of administrative building of Zilla Parishad. It has been tried to be brought on record as to how the illegalities have been committed while accepting the tender. The allotment of tender work to such ineligible, inexperienced and incompetent agency has caused much loss of public exchequer and according to the petitioner, criminal offence has been committed by respondent Nos.4, 5 and the contractor and that requires to be taken cognizance of.