Calcutta High Court (Appellete Side)
Orissa Stevedores Limited vs Syama Prasad Mookerjee Port on 28 October, 2021
28.10.2021
Item No.14
Ct.No.6
S.Das/AJ.
W.P.A. 15127 of 2021
(Via Video Conference)
Orissa Stevedores Limited
-Vs-
Syama Prasad Mookerjee Port, Kolkata & Ors.
Mr. Saptangshu Basu, Sr. Adv.,
Mr. Soumya Majumder,
Mr. Rajnish Sinha,
Mr. Amitava Mitra,
Ms. Antara Chowdhury,
Mr. Jishnujit Roy,
... for the petitioner.
Mr. Jishnu Saha, Sr. Adv,
Mr. Pranit Bag,
Mr. Snehashis Sen,
Mr. Abhishek Banerjee.
...for the respondent nos. 1 to 4.
Mr. Siddhartha Lahiri.
...for the Union of India.
Supplementary affidavit filed by the petitioner is taken on record.
The petitioner's grievance is that the petitioner is involved in mechanization of berths at Haldia Dock Complex for over thirty years. A fresh tender for that purpose was invited by the Port Authority to which the petitioner participated. Applicants were qualified for 'request for proposal' stage on the basis of evaluation of the responses to the RFQ and the petitioner's name was excluded from the shortlisted tenderers.
Learned Counsel for the petitioner submits that though the petitioner was disqualified due to 2 reason of national security, no such reason was assigned to the petitioner for the same. The petitioner has placed reliance upon several judgments of the Hon'ble Supreme Court in support of his contention wherein the Supreme court has observed that though the authority is entitled to reject any tender offer without assigning any reason, such power should not be used arbitrarily and should only be exercised upon reasonable consideration.
The petitioner prays for interim stay of finalization of the tender process till disposal of the present application.
Learned Counsel representing the Port Authority submits that the issue of national security is dealt with by the Union of India and the authority has no say therein. Learned Counsel further submits that as the tender process is already in progress it shall suffice to hold that the result of such process shall abide by the result of the present writ petition.
The Union of India seeks accommodation to submit a report in the matter.
Such report be submitted within three weeks from date.
In the meantime, there shall be an interim stay of finalization of the tender process initiated 3 by the respondents till 30th November, 2021 or until further orders, whichever is earlier.
List this matter before the regular Bench on 18th November, 2021.
All parties shall act on the server copies of this order duly downloaded from the official website of this Court.
(Suvra Ghosh, J.)