STATE GOVERNMENT OF MAHARASHTRA Vs. HINDUSTAN COMPUTER LTD

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The State Government of Maharashtra and the Manager, Government Photo Registry filed this Original Petition No. 292/93 claiming damages and refund of the cost of a photo copying machine from the Hindustan Computer Ltd., Bombay/Pune and International Data Management Ltd., New Delhi/Pune. The State Government of Maharashtra wanted to change its system of photo copying of the registered documents, which are to be preserved in terms of the statutory provisions, as they found that the Planetary Camera System in use since 1927 was not adequate enough to cope with the continuously increasing number of documents. These documents are supplied to the public on demand for a very nominal charge. In fact, at times even the cost of the printing and supply is not met out of the charge levied for this purpose. With a view to modernising the system and after obtaining an expert advice from the Tata Consultancy Services, the State Government invited tenders specifying their requirements to have a modern photo copying system. M/s. Hindustan Computers Ltd., who are opposite parties in this case, were one of the tenderers and their tender was accepted. The system was installed by the Hindustan Computers Ltd. and became operational on July 11, 1992. The case of the complainant is that to their dismay and shock they noticed the following deficiencies in the use of machinery/equipment supplied by the opposite party No. 1 :

(2.) The complainants also found that the output of the photo printing was much below the output committed in the tender, so much so that between July, 1992 and September, 1993 it was 37.67% and 24.16% in respect of microfilming and printing, respectively. Correspondence ensued between the complainant and the opposite party as regards the deficiencies and finally the complainant requested the opposite party to take either of the three following remedial actions :

(3.) The opposite party did not accept either of these three remedial actions and thereafter the Government of Maharashtra filed a complaint before this Commission. It has been mentioned in this complaint petition that even in the initial stage itself the Service Personnel of the opposite party Nos. 1 and 2 had to visit the Government Photo Registry as many as 184 times during the period from 14.7.1992 to 8.7.1993.