D. VENKATA KRISHNA REDDY Vs. STATE OF TELANGANA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The case of the petitioner is that he being Class-III Civil Contractor had participated in the e-tender Notification with tender ID No. 138226, vide tender Notice No. MCA/E/21/4/2019-20 for the repair works to underground drainage Sewer pipelines and manholes in Ameenpur Municipality. In all, three bidders, including the petitioner, were qualified in tender for approval to open price bid and they had also submitted the relevant hard copies. But, the respondent No. 3, the Ameenpur Municipality, with an erroneous observation that the tenderers had not submitted the hard copies, proceeded to recall the tender. However, in the process of making the entries in the computer record, instead of making the entries as 'recalling the tender', it is entered as the 'L1 bidder is blacklisted'. Thus, having noticed the mistake committed by the respondent No. 3 in blacklisting the petitioner's name, a request was made to the authorities to rectify the said mistake. As a result, the respondent No. 3 addressed a letter in Lr.No. E1/Digitalkey/2019-20, dtd. 11/10/2019 to the respondent No. 2, the Principal Secretary, Information Technology, Electronics and Communications Department with a request to delete the name of the petitioner from the blacklist and activate the petitioner's Digitalkey number and user ID. Complaining that no action has been taken so far, the present writ petition is filed by the petitioner. Heard the learned counsel for the petitioner, the learned Government Pleader for Municipal Administration and Urban Development for respondent Nos. 1 and 2, and Sri N.Praveen Kumar, the learned Standing Counsel for respondent No. 3. Perused the material available on record. As seen from the record, the municipal officials themselves have withdrawn the tenders due to some technical defect. Due to the mistake committed by a technical staff, a wrong entry has been made and the respondent No. 3 has also addressed a letter to that effect. Even though the letter is addressed to the respondent No. 2 on 11/10/2019, still no action has been taken. This Court, time and again, has held that blacklisting of a contractor cannot be done at the drop of a hat, but it should be the last resort for punishing any contractor/tenderer. The law with regard to blacklisting of any firm is well established by a catena of decisions. The Hon'ble Supreme Court in Erusian Equipment & Chemicals Ltd. v. State of West Bengal,AIR 1975 SC 266. at para Nos. 12, 15 and 20, has held as under: