VALLEY TRANSPORT COMPANY Vs. UT OF J&K

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The petitioner is aggrieved of and has called in question communication dtd. 7/7/2021, issued by respondent No.5 to the Branch Manager, J&K Bank, Bijbehara, the respondent No.6 herein, whereby the later has been requested to deposit the amount of Term Deposit Receipt amounting to Rs.30.00 lakhs submitted by the petitioner on account of security deposit, in the Additional Treasury, Tankipora, Srinagar, in Revenue Head 0055-Police.

(2.) Briefly stated, the facts leading to the filing of this petition are that Zonal Police Headquarters, Kashmir, Srinagar, invited e-tenders vide e-NIT No.02 of 2019 dtd. 19/2/2019, for supply of commercial vehicles for the subordinate units of Kashmir Zone for the financial year 2019-20. The petitioner along with various other firms participated in the tendering process. The petitioner was declared as the lowest tenderer (L1) for supply of following two types of vehicles:

(3.) Accordingly, the petitioner was allotted the rate contract by respondent No.3. As per one of the terms and conditions of the NIT, the approved tenderer was required to furnish the security deposit equivalent to 3% of the contract value in the form of CDR from a Nationalized Bank. The petitioner, thus, furnished the security deposit in the shape of Term Deposit Receipt to the tune of Rs.30.00 lakhs. An agreement between petitioner and the Government of Jammu and Kashmir was executed on 1/6/2019. As per the contract awarded to the petitioner and the agreement executed between the parties, the petitioner was supposed to make the supply of required number of vehicles. However, the petitioner failed to fulfil the contractual commitment and expressed his inability to provide the required number of trucks on 31/7/2019 for carriage of CAPF companies. The petitioner even requested the respondents to award the rate contract to the second lowest tenderer.