NARAYAN CHANDRA SAHA Vs. STATE OF TRIPURA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THE petitioner by means of this petition has prayed that the bid of the private respondent No. 3 for running the Khowai Town Foreign Liquor shop be held to be informal and be cancelled and the State be directed to grant the shop in favour of the petitioner. The undisputed facts are that the petitioner is at present moment the licensee of the Khowai Town Foreign Liquor shop. Fresh notices inviting tenders were issued by the State on 24th January, 2014 for settlement of the Foreign Liquor shops including the Khowai Town Foreign Liquor shop. The petitioner and respondent No. 3 have submitted their separate bids in response to the said Notice Inviting Tender (NIT). The respondent No. 3 offered a bid of Rs. 21,50,000/ - whereas the bid submitted by the petitioner was for a sum of Rs. 20,02,404/ -. Therefore, the respondent No. 3 was the highest bidder.

(2.) THE case of the petitioner is that since the respondent No. 3 failed to produce 'No Objection Certificate' from the owner of the building in which he proposed to set up the liquor shop in possession in terms of Clause 3 of the NIT, the tender of respondent No. 3 should have been rejected and, thereafter, the tender of the petitioner being the second highest bidder should have been accepted.

(3.) IN this behalf, reference may be made to the order of me Collector, Khowai, dated 7th March, 2013, wherein the objection of Biplab Debnath, brother of the respondent No. 3, has been considered. In this objection Biplab Debnath claimed that the shop is in his possession and Bhupal Debnath, the respondent No. 3, admitted that Biplab Debnath had forcibly taken possession of the said shop premises and, therefore, he would follow the due course of law for getting Biplab evicted from the shop premises. The Collector also gave time to Bhupal Debnath to find out alternative premises.