Calcutta High Court (Appellete Side)
E-Procurement Technologies Limited & ... vs Coal India Limited & Ors on 17 December, 2014
Author: Jayanta Kumar Biswas
Bench: Jayanta Kumar Biswas
1
In The High Court at Calcutta
Civil Appellate Jurisdiction
Appellate Side
CAN No.11279 of 2014
17.12.14 In
(S.R.) MAT No.2039 of 2014
e-Procurement Technologies Limited & Anr.
v.
Coal India Limited & Ors.
Mr. Saktinath Mukherjee
Mr. Aniruddha Chatterjee
Mr. Surya Prosad Chatoopadhyay
...for the appellants.
Mr. Tilok Kumar Bose
Mr. Sourav Gupta
Mr. Parth Basu
Mr. Nikil Roy
... for the 1st to 8th respondents.
Mr. Hirak Kumar Mitra Mrs. Suchishmita Chatterjee Mr. Siddhartha Chatterjee ... for the 10th respondent.
The appellants in the MAT are aggrieved by a single Judge decision dated November 20, 2014 dismissing their WP No.29980 (W) of 2014 under Article 226 of the Constitution of India.
2. Coal India Limited, the first respondent in the MAT, put certain services out to tender. The appellants applied for participating in the tender process. They were disqualified from the process. Feeling aggrieved they moved the WP.
23. Mr. Mukherjee appearing for the appellants has submitted that the appellants were disqualified from the process on the grounds that they had not given certain information, they, according to the authority, were under an obligation to give.
4. Mr. Bose appears for Coal India Limited and Mr. Mitra appears for the tenth respondent. Both of them have submitted that the appellants were disqualified from the process on the grounds that they had made certain misstatement in their application to participate in the process.
5. Mr. Mukherjee has prayed for an interim order asking Coal India Limited not to debar the appellants from participating in its future tenders on the grounds that from the tender process in question they were disqualified.
6. Mr. Bose and Mr. Mitra have submitted that the disqualification questioning which the appellants filed the WP, out of which the MAT, has arisen has nothing to do with the appellants' participation in future tenders invited by Coal India Limited.
7. To this Mr. Mukherjee has said that since in future tenders, there may be a clause debarring one disqualified from a previous tender process from participating in the tenders, the appellants need the interim relief.
8. The question whether Coal India Limited was 3 justified in disqualifying the appellants from the tender process in question is the subject matter of the MAT. Hence we are of the view that it will be in the interest of justice to grant them the interim relief.
9. Mr. Mukherjee has submitted that the appeal needs early hearing, and that since the respondents have appeared and all the pleadings used before the single Judge have been produced with the CAN for stay, the requirements of notice of appeal and paper book can be dispensed with.
10. For these reasons, we dispose of the CAN ordering as follows. During pendency of the appeal Coal India Limited shall not debar the appellants from participating in its future tenders on the grounds that they were disqualified from the tender process out of which the WP and the MAT have arisen. The notice of appeal and the paper book requirements are dispensed with. The CAN shall be used for the MAT final hearing. The appellants shall file the certified copy of the single Judge decision. Add the MAT for hearing to the next monthly list. Certified xerox.
(Jayanta Kumar Biswas, J.) (Ishan Chandra Das, J.)