The Calcutta High Court recently dismissed a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) filed alleging that Notice Inviting Tender (NIT) was published for executing the plantation and other related work with estimated value of Rs.5-10 lakhs and in that process, the authority had committed several irregularities such as the NIT was not published in the newspaper, as required the minimum 7 days time for submission of tender was not given and instead of 5% security deposit, only 3% security amount was taken.
The PIL has been filed by one Ambuj Tewari.
Submission of Counsel for the petitioner is that though the representations were submitted but no action has been taken.
Having examined the record , the Division Bench of Chief Justice Prakash Shrivastava and Justice Rajarshi Bharadwaj found that the petition was filed on 11.03.2022 and the allegations were made in the petition in respect of the tenders which were floated between June and July, 2021.
“The petitioner has belatedly approached the High Court. That apart, the scope of interference in the tender matter is very limited as has been settled by the Supreme Court in the matter of Silppi Constructions contractors vs Union of India and another reported in (2020) 16 SCC 489. It is also noticed that there is no allegation of violating the above conditions to favour any particular party and none of the unsuccessful participants have joined this petition making any such allegation”
-the court observed.
In these circumstances, the Court opined at this stage that no case for interference is made out in the present petition which is accordingly dismissed.