Private Limited And Anr vs Government Of West Bengal
2023 Latest Caselaw 2720 Cal/2

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OD    -    12
                          IN THE HIGH COURT AT CALCUTTA
                           Civil Appellate Jurisdiction
                                       ORIGINAL SIDE
                                            APOT/328/2023
                                            IA NO.GA/1/2023
                                           RELIABLE FACILITY SERVICES
                                           PRIVATE LIMITED AND ANR.
                                                    -Versus-
                                           GOVERNMENT OF WEST BENGAL,
                                           SERVICE THROUGH THE FOOD AND
                                           SUPPLIES DEPARTMENT AND ORS.


BEFORE :
THE HON'BLE CHIEF JUSTICE T.S. SIVAGNANAM
          And
THE HON'BLE JUSTICE HIRANMAY BHATTACHARYYA
Date : 27th September, 2023

                                                              Appearance :
                                              Mr.SabyasachiChaudhury, Adv.
                                             Mr.Suddhasatva Banerjee, Adv.
                                                   Mr.SagnikMajumdar, Adv.
                                                       Mr. PushanKar, Adv.
                                           Ms. Shreya Ghosh Dastidar, Adv.
                                                       ...for the appellant.

                                          Mr. Sirsanya Bandyopadhyay, Adv.
                                                      ...for the respondent.

The Court :We have heard Mr. Sabyasachi Chaudhury,

learned advocate appearing for the appellant and Mr. Sirsanya

Bandyopadhyay, learned advocate appearing for the respondent.

This appeal is directed against an order dated 6th

September, 2023 in WPO No.1434 of 2023 which was dismissed.

The appellant had challenged the validity of cancellation of a

tender forfeiture of EMD and also the order preventing/barring

the petitioner from participating in future bids for five

years as per clause 6.5.1 - (iv) of the e-tender document.

When the appeal came up for admission before the Division

Bench on 15th September, 2023, an interim protection was

granted to the effect that the appellant will not be prevented

from submitting any tender and the limited interim order will

be valid till 22nd September, 2023 or until further orders,

whichever is earlier and further, the Hon'ble Division Bench

observed that the impugned decision dated 30th June, 2023 or

the impugned judgment and order of the learned Single Bench

will not be a bar to the appellant to submit any bid. Should

the appellant unable to obtain any stay of the impugned

judgment and order and the impugned decision dated 30th June,

2023 by 22nd September, 2023, the bids received by the

appellant shall in no manner be processed with by the

respondent department.

After hearing the learned Advocates for the parties, we

are of the view that if any interim order, as prayed for, is

granted in this appeal, at this juncture, it would tantamount

to allowing the appeal at an interim stage which is

impermissible in law. The leaned advocate appearing for the

appellant would contend that the order barring/preventing the

appellant from participating in future bids for five years by

order dated 30th June, 2023, impugned in the writ petition, was

without issuing any show cause notice and without providing an

opportunity to the appellant and the order is in total

violation of principles of natural justice and in this regard,

the learned advocate places reliance on several decisions of

the Hon'ble Supreme Court. Further, it is pointed out that in

the Resolution of the Committee of the respondent Department

adopted in the meeting held on 24th May, 2023 does not speak of

any specific blacklisting or preventing the appellant from

participating in any of the future tenders invited by the

respondent authorities. In our view, these are all issues

which have to be argued at the time when the appeal is being

heard and, if any, interim order is granted which would have

an effect of allowing the appeal at the interlocutory stage

would be impermissible. Therefore, the prayer for grant of

interim stay stands rejected.

Since urgency is pleaded by the learned Advocate for the

appellant, let the appeal be listed for hearing on 22nd

November, 2023. Since all the relevant documents are available

in the stay application, filing of informal paper book is

dispensed with.

(T.S. SIVAGNANAM) CHIEF JUSTICE

(HIRANMAY BHATTACHARYYA, J.)

S.Das/