Gujarat High Court
Shree Durga Industries Through ... vs Union Of India on 27 April, 2022
Bench: Ashutosh J. Shastri
C/SCA/8398/2022 ORDER DATED: 27/04/2022
IN THE HIGH COURT OF GUJARAT AT AHMEDABAD
R/SPECIAL CIVIL APPLICATION NO. 8398 of 2022
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SHREE DURGA INDUSTRIES THROUGH AUTHORISED REPS,
SANKETKUMAR RAJESHKUMAR TIWARI
Versus
UNION OF INDIA
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Appearance:
DHRUV TOLIYA(9249) for the Petitioner(s) No. 1
for the Respondent(s) No. 1,2,3
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CORAM:HONOURABLE THE CHIEF JUSTICE MR. JUSTICE
ARAVIND KUMAR
and
HONOURABLE MR. JUSTICE ASHUTOSH J. SHASTRI
Date : 27/04/2022
ORAL ORDER
(PER : HONOURABLE THE CHIEF JUSTICE MR. JUSTICE ARAVIND KUMAR)
1. Heard Shri Dhruv Toliya, learned counsel appearing for the
petitioner. Perused the record.
2. Petitioner is calling in question the show cause notice dated
19.4.2022 (Annexure-L), under which petitioner has been called
upon to furnish his reply.
3. The sum and substance of the show cause notice is that
the Frontier Headquarter BSF Gujarat, Gandhinagar had placed a
contract order on the petitioner against GEMC
No.511687756155322 dated 23.7.2021 for supply of 4186
numbers of steel trunk (Kit Box), but petitioner firm had failed to
supply complete store i.e. balance quantity 716 number of steel
C/SCA/8398/2022 ORDER DATED: 27/04/2022
trunk even after issuing repeated notices. Hence, said issue
raised by the buyer resulted in GeM, e-portal of the Government
of India initiating proceedings against the petitioner for
blacklisting the firm due to non-supply of complete stock. This
resulted in impugned show cause notice being issued to the
petitioner calling upon him to furnish reply and petitioner has
also been notified that failing to submit the reply would result in
reflecting the petitioner's status of sellers' account as
'Watchlisted'. Petitioner has replied to the said show cause
notice on 22.4.2022 as per Annexure-M. Even before ink on the
said reply could dry, petitioner has rushed to this Court invoking
extraordinary jurisdiction for quashing of the show-cause notice
contending inter alia that reply submitted by the petitioner is
likely to be brushed aside by respondent and there would be no
consideration of his reply and petitioner ought to be extended a
personal hearing and citing previous incidents that had occurred,
and apprehending repetition of the same even in respect of
present impugned show cause notice, petitioner is seeking for
quashing of the said show cause notice.
4. Time and again, the Hon'ble Apex Court in catena of
judgments has held that a writ is not maintainable against show
C/SCA/8398/2022 ORDER DATED: 27/04/2022
cause notice unless it is established that authority who has
issued such show cause notice is not the competent authority. In
other words, it has been held that writ against show cause notice
is premature and would not lie. For this proposition, the following
judgments of the Hon'ble Apex Court can be looked up:
(1) In the case of Union of India and Another Vs. Kunisetty
Satyanarayana reported in AIR 2007 SC 906 (para 13
to 16)
(2) In the case of Executive Engineer, Bihar State Housing
Board Vs. Ramesh Kumar Singh and others reported in
AIR 1996 SC 691 (para 10 and 11)
5. Keeping the aforesaid authoritative principles of law in
mind, when the facts of the present case are examined, it would
not detain us for too long to brush aside the contentions raised
by the learned counsel for the petitioner inasmuch as the
contents of the show cause notice would indicate that there is a
grave deviation as per the incident management policy of GeM
perpetrated by the petitioner, which is stoutly denied by the
petitioner in reply to the show cause notice. In other words, it
requires examination or scrutiny of disputed question of facts,
which cannot be gone into or examined in a writ jurisdiction. As
such, holding present petition is premature, this Special Civil
Application filed under Articles 226 and 227 of the Constitution of
C/SCA/8398/2022 ORDER DATED: 27/04/2022
India stands DISMISSED.
6. We make it clear that we have not expressed any opinion
on merits of the case.
Sd/-
(ARAVIND KUMAR,CJ)
Sd/-
(ASHUTOSH J. SHASTRI, J)
OMKAR
