DIP GOGOI Vs. NUMOLIGARH REFINERY LTD

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The central issue put under the judicial scrutiny through this writ petition is whether the selection of agencies for different categories of vehicles of requisite numbers by lottery is arbitrary, discriminatory and violative of Article 14 of the Constitution of India.

(2.) The factual matrix of the case, in a nutshell, is that the respondent-Numoligarh Refinery Ltd.(for short 'the NRL') floated the notice inviting tender, for short 'NIT', on 3.6.02 (Annexure-A to the writ petition) inviting tender in single bid system from the intending agencies for the work 'Hiring of vehicles for NRL'. As per the NIT, the tender documents would be issued to the intending agencies on payment of Rs.500/- which after having been duly completed as per the requirement of the tender documents, shall have to be submitted to the Commercial Department, NRL during the period from 14.06.2002 upto 13.00 hours on 21.6.2002 and those tenders shall be opened on 21.6.2002 after 13.30 hours. The petitioners, being the educated unemployed youth who have already been in such business with the NRL by giving their vehicles on hire by taking loan from the financial Institution, having come to know about the said, NIT, have purchased the tender documents by paying Rs.500/- per tender paper, each of which contains Letter Inviting Tender (for short the LIT) dated 17.05.02 (Annexure B series to the writ petition) accompanying the special terms and conditions including the procedure for selection of the contractors. The relevant terms and conditions under the special terms and conditions may be reproduced as under:

(3.) Dissatisfied with the clause "Agencies for different categories of vehicles of requisite nos. shall be selected by the lottery of the serial nos in presence of bidders." in the said special terms and conditions, instead of submitting the tenders after the purchase of tender documents, the petitioners approached this Court challenging precisely the selection process of NRL in awarding such work by a lottery. Their contention is that such selection by the lottery would be only by chance and there would also be few who may be lucky to receive the work and as such by adopting the impugned procedure of selection, the NRL has been engaging in lottery transaction which is gambling in nature and contrary to the public policy.