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Judgment
Jayanta Kumar Biswas, J.—The Court : The Petitioner in this Article 226 petition dated March 6, 2011 (sic) is seeking a mandamus quashing the selection of one Five Star Shipping Agency Pvt. Ltd. for executing a work that was put out to tender by one ABG-Haldia Bulk Terminals Pvt. Ltd. by a notice dated October 24, 2009 (at p.18).
Only three officials of ABG-Haldia and a director of Five Star have been impleaded as Respondents besides the Chairman of Kolkata Port Trust who is the first Respondent. Neither ABG-Haldia nor Five Star is a party to the petition.
Case of the Petitioner is this. In the process initiated by ABG-Haldia the Petitioner and Five Star participated with other tenderers. Though the Petitioner''s bid was the lowest one, ABG-Haldia wrongfully accepted the bid of Five Star. Since ABG-Haldia is an agent of Kolkata Port Trust and it actually put the work out to tender on behalf of the Port Trust, the Petitioner is entitled to approach the High Court under Article 226.
Counsel for the Port Trust and the officials of ABG-Haldia have raised the question of maintainability of the petition.
There is no reason to accept the argument that ABG-Haldia is an agent of Kolkata Port Trust or that it put the work out to tender on behalf of the Port Trust. In a tender process ABG-Haldia emerged as the successful tenderer and got the whole work a part of which it put out to tender for getting executed by its chosen contractor. It is, therefore, evident that in the process initiated by ABG-Haldia, not a State within the meaning of Article 12, no public law element was involved so as to entitle the Petitioner to the public law remedy under Article 226. The petition is just not maintainable.
For these reasons, the petition is dismissed. No costs. Certified xerox.