The Meghalaya High Court disposed of a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) filed bringing certain anomalies to the notice of the Court pertaining to a request for proposal floated by the State for supply of AI and lab equipment to primary and secondary educational institutions in the State.
The Division Bench of Chief Justice Sanjib Banerjee and Justice W. Diengdoh noted that the work order in such regard was issued on March 29, 2023. The State also submits that substantial supplies have been effected and in several cases the supplies have been completed.
“In such view of the matter, this petition cannot be taken any further”, the Court held.
However, the State will take note of the anomalies pointed out, particularly since one of the complaints is that the RFQ was designed to obtain a single product or a product exclusively manufactured by a particular firm or organisation and that bidders not eligible in terms of the eligibility criteria were short-listed for consideration only to ensure that the formality of showing three qualified bidders could be gone through for L1 to be awarded the contract , the Bench directed.
“If any mistake has been made by the State, the same should not be repeated and corrective measures should immediately be taken by the Education Department”, ordered by the High Court.