Arvind Techno Engineers Pvt. Ltd vs State Of Madhya Pradesh And Others

V.K. Shukla, J

Invoking the writ jurisdiction under Article 226 of the Constitution of India, the petitioner has prayed the following reliefs :

(i) Direct respondent no.1 to conduct an enquiry and punish erring officers of IDA.

(ii) Direct the respondent IDA to immediately get the drainage drawings of Kesar Bagh Over Bridge approved and requisite permissions from the Railways so that the petitioner may complete the same within a time bound manner.

(iii) Allow this petition with costs.

(iv) Any other and further orders as may be deemed fit by this Hon'ble Court may kindly be passed in favour of petitioner.

At the outset, learned counsel for the petitioner submitted that he is confining the present petition only in respect of relief claimed in para 7.2 of the petition.

The facts in short which are necessary for disposal of the present petition are that respondent Indore Development Authority floated tender for construction of Railway Over Bridge(ROB) on the Western Ring Road at Indore. In response to the NIT, 7 bids were received. After evaluation of the technical bids, the financial bid offered by petitioner Arvind Techno Engineers Pvt. Ltd. was accepted and work order was issued.

Learned counsel for the petitioner submitted that the drainage work of ROB has yet not been completed which may lead to safety hazards to railway passengers, hence it would be in the interest of justice and in the interest of the public that Indore Development Authority be directed to get the drawing of drainage system of Kesar Bagh Over Bridge approved by the Railways and thereafter to direct the petitioner to complete it.

Learned counsel for the respondents raised a preliminary objection regarding the maintainability of the petition on the grounds that on the same issue a Public Interest Litigation comprising W.P.No.8994/2014(PIL) filed by Dr. Sanjay Kamble has already been decided and in the said case, this court has been taken note of the fact that the work of ROB has already been completed. Further a Review Petition filed by the Railway Department R.P.No.824/2018 has also been dismissed by this court. Learned counsel for the respondents further submitted that from the documents filed by the petitioner, it is axiomatic that there is admission by the petitioner himself that the construction of ROB has already been completed, therefore the present petition is highly misconceived and liable to be dismissed.

Having heard the learned counsel for the parties, we do not find any merit in the present petition. Public Interest Litigation was filed by Dr.Sanjay Kamle (W.P.No.8994/2014), in which , the present petitioner was also impleaded as respondent no.3. In the said petition the grievance was in respect of delay in completion of Railway Over Bridge between Kesarbagh Road to Annapurna Road, Scheme No.141 RE-1. The said Public Interest Litigation was disposed of with the following directions:

"9. In view of the fact that the ROB is compete and functional, we do not find that any further direction are called for in the present petition. If the respondent no.3/contractor has any dispute in respect of measurements and non-payment of its dues, it is at liberty to avail appropriate remedy under the law.

With the aforesaid observations, we dispose of the present petition. No further orders are called for in the present petition."

Thereafter, review petition was filed by the Railway Department (R.P.No.824/2018), which has also been dismissed by this court by order dated 12-11-2018. The relevant part of the said order is reproduced as under :

"This petition has been filed seeking review of the order dated 20-03-2018 passed by this court in W.P.No.8994/2014.

The Indore Development Authority floated tender for construction of Railway Over Bridge(ROB) on the Western Ringh Road at Indore. In response the NIT, 7 bids were received. After evaluation of the technical bids, the financial bid offered by Arvind Techno Engineers Pvt.Ltd. was accepted and work order was issued. Since there was considerable delay in completion of the work, W.P.No.8994/2014 was filed in public interest for completion of construction of the Railway Over Bridge. The said writ petition was decided on 20-03-2018 in view of the fact that the construction of Railway Over Bridge (ROB) was complete and functional, therefore, this court found that no further directions were needed and writ petition was disposed of. It is against this order, the present review petition has been filed."

Upon perusal of the record, we have noted that Managing Director of the petitioner company had written to the Chief Engineer of Indore Development Authority vide letter dated 03-06-2017 stating that the work of construction of ROB has already been completed . Relevant part of the said communication reads as under :

"The work of drainage in steel girder span and railway span has also been completed by us in all respects. Since no work is now left to be completed as on date, we request you to kindly issue us the completion certificate for the above work.

The completion drawing of drainage of these three spans is enclosed."

Thus, there is unequivocal admission by the present petitioner that the work of ROB was already completed.

In view of the earlier admission on the part of the petitioner, the contention of the petitioner cannot be accepted that the work of ROB in question has yet not been completed and therefore, relief claimed for direction to the respondent Indore Development Authority to get the drainage drawings of the said bridge approved and after getting permission from the Railway the petitioner be allowed to complete the same cannot be granted.

The petition being devoid of merit and substance is hereby dismissed.