AUROMA COKE LIMITED Vs. COAL INDIA LIMITED

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The present writ petition pertains to a challenge against the refusal of the Coal India Limited (CIL), the respondent no.1 herein, to allow the petitioner no.1-Company to participate in any of its tenders. The refusal is on the premise of a blacklisting/suspension of the petitioner in the year 2011. Such blacklisting was done upon a communication from the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) which has been investigating a matter, where the petitioner no.1-Company is also involved. A charge-sheet with regard to the investigation was filed in the year 2012.

(2.) Learned senior counsel for the petitioners submits that in view of the promulgation of a new Scheme in November 2022, the maximum period of such blacklisting has already expired and the petitioner ought to be granted an opportunity to participate in the tenders floated by the CIL. Such contention is controverted by the respondent-Authorities.

(3.) It is admitted by both parties that the petitioners previously moved a writ petition challenging a tender on the ground that the eligibility conditions prescribed by the Authorities were arbitrary. The said conditions, inter alia, disqualified a person against whom any legal proceeding is pending for wrongful utilization/misutilization/diversion of coal. In another Clause, a bidder who is convicted for wrongful utilization/misutilization/diversion of coal by any court of law was disqualified. A contradiction between the two was argued by the petitioners. During the course of the hearing before a co-ordinate Bench, it was recorded that there was no impediment in the petitioners submitting their bid in terms of the tender process. Accordingly, the writ petition, bearing WP No.11349 (W) of 2019, was disposed of by observing that there was no such impediment in the petitioners submitting their bid, which, if submitted, would be evaluated in terms of the tender conditions in accordance with law.