VAISHNO FRUIT CO. Vs. UNION OF INDIA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The present Letters Patent Appeal has been preferred against the judgment and order dtd. 26/2/2018. Briefly stated the material facts are as under:-

(2.) The appellant No. 1 (hereinafter referred to as the "appellant-firm") is a contractor, which is registered with the official respondents. It is stated that the said registration was to remain valid up till May, 2013. The appellant-firm based upon the fact that it was registered with the official respondents, was allotted a contract for supply of fresh fruits and vegetables to the respondents, as also some other items.

(3.) During the course of the contract period, the registration of the appellant-firm expired. The stand of the appellants/writ petitioners before the writ Court was that steps were initiated by the appellant-firm to have the firm re-registered. However, before this could be done, a show cause notice was issued to the appellants with a view to show cause as to why the appellant-firm be not removed from the list of approved ASC contractors. Finally, the name of the appellant-firm was struck off. An appeal was Sr. No. 8 preferred before the competent authority, which too was rejected. Based upon the action so taken, an amount of Rs.1.92 lacs, which was lying with the official respondents in the shape of an FDRs, was forfeited. This was done in terms of para-6 of the Circular dtd. 26/9/2006. For facility of reference, the said clause is reproduced as under:-