SOREN SING BEY Vs. KARBI ANGLONG AUTONOMOUS COUNCIL

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The unsuccessful writ petitioner in WP(C) No. 5036 2005 is the appellant in this writ appeal.

(2.) The Karbi Anglong Autonomous District Council (hereinafter referred to as "the Council") vide its notification dated 14.02.2005 issued Notice Inviting Tender (NIT) for settlement of, inter alia, the Entry Tax Gate in question. That, in response to the NIT altogether five tenders were submitted including the one submitted by the appellant and as well as the 5th respondent. The appellant offered a sum of Rs. 27,15,480.00 as against the sum of Rs. 25,00,000.00 offered by the 5th respondent. The offer of the appellant admittedly is the tighest. It appears the Council instead of accepting the highest bid amount of the appellant entered into negotiations with the 5th respondent alone who increased the offer to that of Rs. 30,00,000.00, settled the said Entry Tax Gate in favour of the 5th respondent vide its order dated 08.04.2005. The appellant herein challenged the decision, so taken by the Council, in WP(C) No. 2884/2005. This court having found the action of the Council of its entering into negotiations with the 5th respondent alone in an arbitrary and unilateral manner, interfered with the decision making process and accordingly set aside the settlement order dated 08.04.2005 insofar as Garampani NH 37 Entry Tax Gate is concerned. The learned Single Judge observed that "....no unilateral opportunity to one single tenderer can be offered so as to enable such tenderer to improve upon his offer to the exclusion of others. The said authorities could have re- tendered the Entry Tax Gate or could have even invited all the tenderers for negotiation. Either of the aforesaid courses of action would have been consistent with the rights of the tenderers and the requirement of fair play in action". The order of the learned Single Judge attained its finality.

(3.) The Council, in order to give effect to the directions issued by this court, issued notices dated 04.07.2005 to all the bidders including the appellant and as well as the respondents requesting them to attend for negotiations on 06.07.2005 at 11.00 AM in the office chambers of the Deputy Secretary, Department of Taxation. The appellant herein vide its reply dated 04.07.2005 objected to the procedure adopted by the Council, inter alia, contended that the Council wants "more amount than the offered by me. I being the highest offerer should alone be invited to offer the amount which may be just and adequate for Karbi Anglong Autonomous Council and for that purpose other cannot be given any opportunities to improve their offer and if the offer made by is adequate the settlement should be made in my favour." The appellant also stated that he has a strong objection to the procedure adopted by the Council vide its letter dated 04-07-2005 and contended that under no circumstances the tender system adopted, as is evident from NIT, could be converted into settlement by auction. Thus the appellant raised two fold objections to the proposal sought to be adopted by the Council.