The Division Bench of the Supreme Court consisting of Justices M.R. Shah and B.V. Nagrathna opined that High Courts shall refrain from making sweeping observations that are beyond the contours of the controversy and/or issues before them.

Facts

Bharat Fritz Werner Limited filed a writ petition before the High Court of Delhi assailing a Letter of Acceptance issued by the Union of India in favour of respondent no.2 herein, in respect of the award of a tender. The High Court declined to interfere in the proceedings and disposed of the writ petition after making certain observations. Feeling aggrieved, the Union of India preferred the present appeals and prayed to expunge the said observations/remarks.

Observations of the Court

The Bench, while setting aside the observations made by the High Court in its order, observed that:

“We are of the opinion that the observations made by the High Court, reproduced hereinabove, were absolutely unwarranted. The High Court was not deciding a Public Interest Litigation. The High Court did not even decide the writ petition on merits. On the contrary, in the earlier paragraph, it was observed that it had not gone into the merits of the writ petitioner’s claim or the respondent’s defence. In such circumstances, such general observations should have been avoided by the High Court and the High Court ought to have restricted itself to the controversy between the parties before it. Even otherwise, based on a solitary case, general observations could not have been made by the High Court that the Indian bidders are being discriminated against. We advise the High Courts not to make general observations which are not warranted in the case. The High Courts shall refrain from making sweeping observations which are beyond the contours of the controversy and/or issues before them.”

Case Name: Union of India vs Bharat Fritz Werner Limited & Anr.

Citation: CIVIL APPEAL NOS.1332-1333 OF 2022

Bench: Justice M.R. Shah, Justice B.V. Nagrathna

Decided on: 17th February 2022

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Ayesha