Punjab-Haryana High Court
Kamaljit Singh vs State Of Punjab And Ors. on 14 October, 1999
Equivalent citations: (2000)125PLR275
Author: Mehtab Singh Gill
Bench: Mehtab Singh Gill
JUDGMENT G.S. Singhvi, J.
1. This is a petition for quashing of the auction of old bus stand, Jalandhar conducted by the Punjab Urban Planning and Development Authority (hereinafter described as 'PUDA').
2. The facts necessary for deciding the issues raised in this petition are that vide advertisement Annexure P.2 published in The Tribune dated 16.9.1998, the Chief Administrator, PUDA notified the auction of old Jalandhar bus stand measuring 3386 square yards with reserve price of Rs. 4.86 crores (Rs. 14,350/- per square yard). As per the advertisement/auction was to be held on 29.9.1998 in the office of the Additional Chief Administrator, PUDA, Jalandhar. The petitioner has alleged that without holding the auction on the appointed date at the specified venue, the official respondents have in a surreptitious manner prepared the record showing acceptance of the bid of Rs. 4,86,77,136/- given by M/s St. Soldier Property and Industries Limited. According to him, the action of the authorities of PUDA to accept the bid of Rs. 4,86,77,136/- is wholly arbitrary and contrary to public interest and, therefore, it is liable to be declared as ultra vires to Article 14 of the Constitution of India. He has further averred that many persons who were interested in giving bid were prevented from doing so because of the failure of the official respondents to hold the auction.
3. In the written statement filed by them through Shri Raminder Singh, Additional Chief Administration, PUDA, respondents No. 1 to 3 have averred that the auction of the old bus stand, Jalandhar had been conducted in accordance with the policy framed by the Government for Optimum Utilisation of vacant Government Lands which cannot be utilised profitably. They have further averred that the advertisement for auction of the site in question was published in the Daily Tribune dated 16.9.1998, Hindustan Times and Daily Ajit dated 19.9.1998 and in pursuance of that advertisement, the auction was conducted on 29.9.1998 in the office of the Additional Chief Administrator, PUDA at 12.30 P.M. under the supervision of a committee comprising of the Additional Chief Administrator, Jalandhar (Presiding Officer), Superintending Engineer, Ludhiana (Member), General Manager (Projects) (Member) and Senior Town Planner, PUDA, Mohali (Member) and the highest bid given by M/s St. Soldier Property and Industries Limited was accepted. They have questioned the bona fides of the petitioner and have averred that if the petitioner's intention is bona fide, genuine and free from ulterior consideration, then he should deposit Rs. 48,67,716/- to enable the respondents to re-auction the site in the best interest of PUDA.
4. In their written statement respondents No. 4 to 6 have also questioned the bona fides of the petitioner and have pleaded that they are entitled to get the site on the basis of the highest bid given by them. They have asserted that the writ petition has been filed with an oblique motive to harass them.
5. Before proceeding further, we consider it appropriate to mention that before issuing notice of motion the Court directed the petitioner to deposit a sum of Rs. 25,000/- and the notice of motion was issued only after the required sum was deposited. Later on, in pursuance of the Court's order dated 23.11.1998, the petitioner not only filed an affidavit of Jeewan Parbhat Jain son of Padam Nath Jain, resident of 559-B, Aggar Nagar, Ludhiana, showing his willingness to purchase the property for a sum of Rs. five cores. He also deposited in the Court a bank draft of Rs. 50 lacs drawn on the Centurion Bank Limited, Ludhiana.
6. Shri R.P.S. Athwal argued that the so-called auction held by the authorities of PUDA in which the representative of M/s St. Soldier Property and Industries Ltd. is said to have given the bid of Rs. 4,86,77,136/- is farce and the official respondents are guilty of fabricating the record with a view to fritter away the valuable public property. He made reference to the averments made in paragraphs 3 to 6 of the petition to show that the persons who were interested in giving bids for the site in question could not participate in the auction because no auction was conducted on 29.9.1998 at 12.30 P.M. in the office of the Additional Chief Administrator, PUDA, Jalandhar. Learned counsel for the respondents controverted the submission of Shri Athwal and argued that the auction was, in fact, held by a committee headed by the Additional Chief Administrator. Shri Anil Malhotra drew our attention to the bid sheet (Annexure R.2), the authority letter (Annexure R.3) given by M/s St. Soldier Property and Industries Ltd. Jalandhar, M/s Narotam Singh Company, Jalandhar and Narinder Palta in favour of Shri Sunil Chopra to give bid for the purchase of commercial site and the attendance sheet of bidders and members of the public (Annexure R.4) who are said to have come to witness the auction and submitted that the petitioner's assertion about the non-holding of the auction is factually incorrect. Shri Jasbir Singh, counsel for respondents No.4 to 6 reiterated the objection to the locus standi of the petitioner by arguing that he is merely a busy body and the Court must not entertain his plea for nullification of the auction held by PUDA.
7. We have thoughtfully considered the respective submissions and have perused the record. We have also gone through the file produced by Shri Anil Malhotra. The facts which are borne out from the pleadings of the parties have been noticed herein above. The additional facts which emerge from the file produced by Shri Malhotra show that after completion of the paper formalities, a decision was taken in the meeting held on 28.8.1998 under the Chairmanship of the Chief Administrator, PUDA that old bus stand, opposite Namdev Chowk, Jalandhar be auctioned under the scheme of Optimum Utilisation of Vacant Government Lands and after getting the price assessed by M/s C.B. Richard Ellis, New Delhi, advertisements were issued in Hindustan Times, Delhi; Tribune, Chandigarh; Punjab Kesari, Jalandhar and Daily Ajit, Jalandhar. For this purpose, PUDA spent a sum of Rs. 2,33,740/-. With a view to attract larger number of bidders, the Chief Administrator, PUDA sent a communication dated 17.9.1998 to the Commissioner, Jalandhar Division, Jalandhar that advertisement be circulated among the members of NRI Sabha, Jalandhar. It is also borne out from the record that the General Manager (Projects), Shri J.S. Sekhon, on his own wrote letter No. PUDA-GM(P)/98/1084 dated 18.9.1998 to M/s Kuber Buildwell Ltd., New Delhi inviting it to participate in the auction. The General Manager (Projects) also circulated letter No. PUDA-G.M. (Projects)/98/1100-1103 dated 23.9.1998 to the effect that a committee consisting of four officers will conduct the auction. The sheet on which the bid given by M/s St. Solder Property and Industries Ltd., Kulwinder Singh and Rajesh were recorded is marked as page 1.24 of the file. The attendance sheet showing the presence of the members of the committee is marked as page 125 and the attendance sheet containing the names and signatures of the bidders and some other persons is marked as page 126. Page 130 on the file is the note recorded by the Chief Administrator on 30.9.1998 showing that the highest bid was given by M/s St. Soldier Property and Industries Ltd., Jalandhar. Page 131 of the file contains a clarificatory note recorded by the Additional Chief Administrator on 6.10.1998 showing that the highest bid was given by M/s St. Soldier Property and Industries Ltd., Jalandhar and 10% of the total price was deposited by M/s St. Soldier Property and Industries Ltd., Jalandhar; M/s Narotam Singh and Company, Jalandhar and Narinder Singh Palta.
8. A careful scrutiny of the record reveals the following unusual features:
"(i) The attendance sheet of the members of the committee (page 125) who are said to have supervised the auction and the attendance sheet of the bidders (page 126) are on the letter heads (white pager) of PUDA. The subject on these sheets has been recorded by a typewriter.
(ii) As against this, the bid sheet (page 124) is on a plain green paper. At the top of this sheet, the following words have been recorded with an electronic typewriter"
"Bid sheet regarding auction of site under Old Bus Stand at Namdev Chowk, Jal. held on 29.9.1998 at 12.30 p.m. in the o/o ACA PUDA, Jal."
Below this recording, the following have been written with ball pen :
"Name of the bidders and Amount
No.
0 14,350/- sq.yd.
M/s St. Soldiers Property 3 14,360
and Industries Ltd.
Sh. Kulwinder Singh 2 14,370
M/s St. Soldiers Property 3 14,372
Sh. Kulwinder Singh 2 14,373
M/s St. Soldier Property 3 14,374
Sh. Rajesh and Sh. S.P. Kapur 1 14,375
M/s St. Soldier Propety 3 14,376
and Industries Ltd.
Total : Rs. 4,86,77,136/-"
Below this appears the signatures of some persons including the officials of PUDA.
(iii) The second line of the noting recording at the top of page 124 has been re-typed after applying white fluid and it is not possible to find out as to what had been recorded before applying the white fluid.
(iv) A perusal of page 124 of the file shows that originally the name of the bidders and number and amount was recorded on the top of it. Subsequently the words "bid sheet regarding auction of site under Old Bus Stand at Namdev Chowk, Jal. held on 29.9.1998 at 12.30 p.m. in the o/o ACA PUDA, Jal." have been recorded with the electronic typewriter in order to show that the auction was, in fact, conducted at the appointed time and place indicated in the advertisement."
During the course of arguments, we repeatedly enquired from Shri Malhotra as to what was the occasion for use of different papers for the purpose of recording the bids on the one hand and the attendance sheets on the other hand and why white fluid was applied. He could not give any satisfactory reply in this regard. Not only this, he could not explain as to why bid of Rs. 4,86,77,136/- was accepted when the reserve price was Rs. 4,86 lacs and PUDA had spent a sum of Rs. 2,33,740/- for the purpose of advertisement of the auction.
9. Ordinarily, in a matter like the present one the Court is skeptical to interfere with the action of the public authorities but if it is satisfied that the decision of the public authorities is arbitrary or is contrary to public interest, then the impugned action has to be nullified-Ramana Dayaram Shetty v. The International Airport Authority of India and Ors., A.I.R. 1979 S.C. 1628.
10. If we consider the unusual manner in which the record has been prepared by the official respondents in respect of the so-called auction held on 29.9.1998 and keeping in view the fact that the highest bid does not even satisfy the requirement of reserve price and the amount spent on advertisement and also the fact that the petitioner has not only filed the affidavit of Jeewan Parbhat Jain showing his readiness to purchase the property for a sum of Rs. 5 crores but has also deposited Rs. 50 lacs in the form of bank draft, we hold that the official respondents had not held auction at the appointed time and place and record has been subsequently prepared to favour respondents No.4 to 6 at the cost of public interest. Consequently, the so-called auction proceedings held on 29.9.1998 and the decision of the official respondents to accept the bid given on behalf of M/s St. Soldier Property and Industries Ltd. are declared as violative of Article 14 of the Constitution of India.
11. The objection raised by the respondents to the locus-standi of the petitioner deserves to be negatived because,
(i) the auction held by the official respondents has been held to be contrary to public interest:
(ii) the petitioner has filed an affidavit of Jeewan Parbhat Jain who has agreed to buy the property for a sum of Rs. 5 crores with an undertaking that sum of Rs. 50 lacs be forfeited if he fails to buy the property :
(iii) the petitioner has already deposited Rs.50 lacs in the form of bank draft showing his bona fides. 12. In the result, we allow the writ petition and quash the so-called auction of the old Jalandhar Bus Stand and direct respondents No. 1 to 3 to re-advertise the property for auction. If the highest bid given at such auction is less than Rs. 5 crores, then Jeewan Parbhat Jain son of Padam Nath Jain shall be bound to purchase the property for a sum of Rs. 5 crores, else a sum of Rs. 5 lacs shall be deducted from the amount of Rs. 50 lacs deposited by the petitioner in the form of bank draft in compliance of the Court's order dated 26.4.1999. Final order regarding return of the money deposited by the petitioner shall be passed after finalisation of the bids in pursuance of the fresh auction.