Orissa Stevedores Limited vs Syama Prasad Mookerjee Port
2021 Latest Caselaw 5594 Cal

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

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

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.)