N Govindaraj vs The Vice Chancellor on 11 March, 2020

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Karnataka High Court

N Govindaraj vs The Vice Chancellor on 11 March, 2020

Bench: Abhay S. Oka

                            1




     IN THE HIGH COURT OF KARNATAKA AT BENGALURU

         DATED THIS THE 11TH DAY OF MARCH, 2020

                        PRESENT

      THE HON'BLE MR. ABHAY S. OKA, CHIEF JUSTICE

                          AND

        THE HON'BLE MR. JUSTICE ASHOK S. KINAGI

         WRIT PETITION NO.2204/2020 (GM-RES-PIL)

BETWEEN

N GOVINDARAJ
AGED ABOUT 35 YEARS
S/O G NATARAJAN
R/AT # 105, 14TH MAIN
1ST BLOCK, HMT LAYOUT
VIDYARANYAPURA
BANGALORE-560 097
KARNATAKA
                                          ...PETITIONER

(BY SRI RAJESH K S, ADVOCATE)



AND

1.     THE VICE CHANCELLOR
       UNIVERSITY OF MYSORE, MYSURU
       (PROF. G HEMANTHA KUMAR)

2.     THE REGISTRAR
       UNIVERSITY OF MYSORE, MYSURU
       (PROF. R SHIVAPPA)
                             2



3.   THE REGISTRAR EVALUATION
     UNIVERSITY OF MYSORE, MYSURU
     (PROF. K M MAHADEVAN)

4.   THE FINANCE OFFICER
     UNIVERSITY OF MYSORE, MYSURU
     (DR. T S DEVARAJA)


5.   DEPARTMENT OF HIGHER EDUCATION
     GOVERNMENT OF KARNATAKA
     REPRESENTED BY

a)   DR. RAJKUMAR KHATRI, I.A.S.
     ADDITIONAL CHIEF SECRETARY
     DEPARTMENT OF HIGHER EDUCATION
     ROOM No.645, 6TH FLOOR
     M S BUILDING, BANGALORE-560 001

b)   SRI SUBRAMANYA K L
     DEPUTY SECRETARY (UNIVERSITIES)
     DEPARTMENT OF HIGHER EDUCATION
     M S BUILDING, BANGALORE-560 001
                                     ...RESPONDENTS

(BY SRI V SREENIDHI, AGA FOR R-5 (a) & (b))



     THIS WRIT PETITION IS FILED UNDER ARTICLE 226 OF
THE CONSTITUTION OF INDIA PRAYING TO DIRECT THE
RESPONDENT TO CANCEL THE UNIVERSITY FLOATED
TENDER WITH TITLE 'OUTSOURCING OF EXAMINATION
ACTIVITIES IN UNIVERSITY OF MYSORE, MYSURU ON
TURNKEY BASIS' VIDE ANNEXURE-A AND ETC.,

     THIS WRIT PETITION COMING ON FOR ORDERS THIS
DAY, CHIEF JUSTICE MADE THE FOLLOWING:
                                   3



                              ORDER

The petitioner, by filing this petition purportedly in public interest, has challenged the tender process initiated by University of Mysore for outsourcing of examination activities on TURNKEY basis. Part A consists of pre and post examination and result processing, Part B consists of e-Governance in exam management for colleges and students, Part C consists of digitization of evaluated answer scripts -storage and retrieval and Part D consists of On Screen Marking (Digital Evaluation). The tender notice is of 31st August 2019. As per the tender, the date for opening of the technical bid was 5th October 2019. The present petition is filed on 25th January 2020.

2. The learned counsel appearing for the petitioner is relying upon the Government Order dated 4th July 2015 which directs all State Universities and Government Colleges to migrate to the software system provided by the Department of Higher Education. It was also directed that the existing MOUs/agreement/ AMCs pertaining to maintenance of software systems with the private agencies be stopped. He submits that the recitals in the Government Order records that National Informatics Centre (NIC) has devised a software which is being used by other universities 4 successfully. His submission is that public money will be wasted by the tender process and there will not be any guarantee about the safety and secrecy of the process of examination. He submitted that University of Mysore cannot act contrary to the Government Order dated 4th July 2015 and therefore, illegality is committed by floating the tender.

3. We have considered the submissions. Firstly, the petitioner is not an expert in the field. That is not the averment made in the petition. A writ Court cannot decide which software should be used for examination activities. The Government Order dated 4th July 2015 as it stands does not issue a direction that all State Universities shall use the software devised by NIC and that only NIC software should be used for conducting examination activities. The direction in the Government order is that the software systems of the universities shall be migrated to the software systems provided by the Department of Higher Education. The Government order does not deal with the software to be used for the examination activities.

4. The present petition is filed purportedly in public interest on 25th January 2020 which is nearly five months after the 5 tender was floated. The tender document records that the date for opening the technical bid is 5th October 2019. If we interfere at this stage with the tender process which is for outsourcing the examination activities of University of Mysore, thousands of students will suffer.

5. Moreover, the petitioner has not produced any expert's opinion recording that NIC has developed a software for conduct of the examinations and that software of NIC is much superior to the software which may be provided by other entities. We are, therefore, of the view that this is not a fit case where the petitioner should be allowed to invoke the jurisdiction of this Court under Article 226 of the Constitution of India.

6. Accordingly, the writ petition is rejected.

Sd/-

CHIEF JUSTICE Sd/-

JUDGE bkv

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