Krishnan vs State of Kerala

AR. Lakshmanan, J.—The Writ appeal is directed against the judgment of the learned single Judge dated 7th January 1999 dismissing the writ petition as devoid of any merits. According to learned counsel for the appellant it is axiomatic that a valid black listing alone could be a ground for preventing a person from entering into a contract with the government and therefore, respondents 1 to 3 are not entitled to deny contract to the appellant on the ground that there is a proposal to black list the appellant. This submission of learned counsel for the appellant merit acceptance and well founded and is also in tune with the decision of the Supreme Court reported in Raghunath Thakur Vs. State of Bihar and Others, . It is not in dispute that the appellant has already submitted his tender pursuant to the notification and that the tender has not been finalised so far by the respondents.

The learned Government Pleader filed a statement stating that the government have proposed to black-list contractors including the appellant based on a report of the Finance Inspection Wing as they have cheated the Government in a previous tender settled for 1997-98 and that the present tender was invited for a very short period of 4� months during 1999-2000 from 15-11-1998 to 31-3-1999 and that the Government are at full liberty to accept or not to accept any tender as per clause 9 of the tender conditions. It is stated that after the expiry of the period from 15-11-1998 to 31-3-1999 further tenders for short periods were notified again and the appellant has also submitted his tender for the same. The submission made by the Government Pleader that there is a proposal to black list contractors including the appellant cannot be a ground for not considering the tenders submitted by the appellant already. As on date the appellant has not been blacklisted. Therefore, respondents 1 to 3 are duty bound to consider the tender submitted by the appellant along with other tenderers and the Government is directed to take a final decision within two weeks from the date of receipt of a copy of this judgment either from this court or on production of the same by the appellant whichever is earlier. The Government, while considering the matter, may also take note a Exts. P3 and P4.

The writ appeal is disposed of accordingly.