COAL INDIA LTD Vs. INDIAN EPLOSIVE LTD

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The judgment will dispose of the following four appeals, they being APOT No. 646 of 2005, APOT No. 647 of 2005, APOT No. 648 of 2005 and APOT No. 649 of 2005. The questions of law and the issues involved in these appeals are almost identical. All the above appeals are filed by Coal India Limited, which is a company registered under the Companies Act, 1956 and being the Government company, is a State. In all these appeals, the interim orders passed by the learned Single Judge of this Court in writ petitions filed by the respondent explosive companies are impugned. By that order, the learned Single Judge has issued an injunction restraining the Coal India from incorporating a supplementary clause in the principal contract. The following factual matrix would be necessary to appreciate the" controversies and the issues involved.

(2.) Appellant Coal India Limited owns and operates coal mines. All the coal mines were nationalized by Coal Mines Nationalization Act and that is how, the private ownership of the coal mines was brought to an end. Blasting is a necessary operation for excavating coal from the mines and for that Coal India needs explosives from the manufacturers. The respondent explosive companies in all the four appeals are the manufacturers of the explosives. Coal India procures the explosives through a process of floating tender whereby offers are invited from the various manufacturers of explosives. One such tender notice was floated on 11th January. 2005 inviting offers for supply of bulk loading explosives, cartidge explosives and initiating accessories to the various units of Coal India for the period of 2005-2006. The respondent explosive companies took part in the tender process individually and all the respondent explosive companies were the successful tenderers. Negotiations took place in respect of the price offered by these respondent explosive companies and ultimately formal contract was entered into by and between the appellant Coal India on one hand and the respondent explosive companies of the other. For the sake of convenience, we shall be referring to the facts from APOT No. 646 of 2005 wherein the respondent No. 1, Indian Explosive Ltd. is involved. It seems that formal contracts were entered into and on the basis of the same, the supplies of the bulk explosives began and the explosive companies also raised the bills. Even some part payment of the bills were made by the Coal India. A communication dated 5.8.2005 was addressed by Coal India. By this communication, the Chief General Manager of Coal India intimated that one supplementary clause was incorporated to clause XV (Performance Clause) of the subject contract. The proposed supplementary clause was as under :

(3.) Clause XV to which the aforementioned clause was to be added as a supplementary clause is to be found in the running contract which was accepted by the letter of Coal India dated 18.05.2005. By that letter the offers of the explosive companies were accepted and the terms of the running contract for supply of bulk loading explosives were set out. In the said letter, the following are mentioned as the references :