CREATIVE LAB Vs. STATE OF JHARKHAND

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The present writ petition has been filed for quashing letter No. 13/19-1313 dated 24.12.2019 (Annexure-6 to the writ petition) by reasons of which the respondent No.2 has permanently blacklisted the petitioner-company.

(2.) The factual background of the case, as stated in the writ petition, is that the Department of Higher, Technical Education and Skill Development, Government of Jharkhand floated an e-tender notice vide Reference No. 923 Ranchi/2018-19 for supply of laboratory equipments in various colleges of the State of Jharkhand. Pursuant to the said e-tender notice, the petitioner-company submitted its bid on 07.01.2019 and qualified the technical as well as financial bid. Thereafter, the respondent No.3 sent the supply order to the petitioner-company for supply of certain equipments vide letter No. 981 dated 22.01.2019 in response to which the petitioner-company supplied the required equipments to the respondent No.3. As per the reports dated 24.02.2019, the receiving/installation/demonstration of all the supplied equipments was done by the petitioner-company and the respondent No.3 approved the same without any objection. Only one apparatus was found damaged which was informed to the petitioner-company and in response to the same, it replaced the said apparatus and thereafter there was no objection with regard to the remaining apparatuses/ equipments. The petitioner-company was also paid the amount of bills raised on two different dates i.e. 27.02.2019 and 07.03.2019. However, suddenly the respondent No.2 issued the impugned letter No. 13/19-1313 dated 24.12.2019 by reasons of which it was blacklisted without issuing any show cause notice.

(3.) Learned counsel for the petitioner submits that the terms and conditions of e-tender notice manifestly indicate that any payment was to be made to the petitioner-company after delivery, verification of quality, specification and successful installation, demonstration and training of the equipments and softwares (if any) at institute. Hence, the payment of the bill raised in consonance with the reports of the Government Polytechnic, Ranchi makes it quite clear that there was no infirmity in the equipments supplied by the petitioner-company and the same were supplied as per the terms and conditions of the said e-tender notice as well as the work order. The impugned letter dated 24.12.2019 of the respondent No.2 blacklisting the petitioner-company has been issued without giving any show cause notice to it which is contrary to the settled principle of law. It is further submitted that the petitioner-company has been blacklisted without making any proper enquiry in this regard. The impugned order dated 24.12.2019 though speaks of the discrepancies/anomalies in the equipments supplied by the petitioner-company, however, the installation/demonstration report of the Government Polytechnic, Ranchi would clearly suggest that all the equipments were properly working and one damaged apparatus was also replaced and thereafter the payment was already made by the Government Polytechnic, Ranchi on being satisfied with the quality/quantity of the supplied equipments. The respondent No.2 however did not make any enquiry before issuing the impugned letter dated 24.12.2019. The petitioner was never served with any enquiry report conducted at the instance of the respondent No.2 so as to suggest that the quality of the equipments supplied by the petitioner-company was verified. The entire tender process was conducted under the supervision of the respondent No.2 and no objection was ever raised by the said authority while the petitioner-company was declared as the successful tenderer. As such, after passage of such a long time, the allegation made by the respondent No.2 in the impugned letters dated 24.12.2019 is completely arbitrary and malafide.