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Judgment
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The petitioner had participated in an e-tender invited by 2nd respondent on 09.06.2017, in connection with the budget to work for the year 2016-17
for providing BM & BC surfacing to Edamuttam-Edathiruthy road.
It is stated that petitioner had remitted a sum of Rs.1,00,000/- towards Earnest Money Deposit in addition to tender fee of Rs.7,875/-. The
petitioner's name was published in the list of unsuccessful bidders, after the financial evaluation, in the e-tender website on 04.04.2018. It is stated that
the Earnest Money Deposit was not released to petitioner though the tender fee of a sum of Rs.7,875/-was released. Petitioner complains that even
after repeated representations, starting from Ext.P1 dated 28.06.2019 and followed by Exts.P2 and P3, the respondents have not released the EMD
due to him.
Though as per Ext.P4 letter, the Superintending Engineer informed the petitioner on 28.11.2019 that there occurred some mistake in uploading, in
respect of tender fee and EMD, in the case of petitioner and therefore steps are afoot for releasing the same, no action was taken thereafter.
The learned Government Pleader on instructions submits that there occurred some mistakes on the part of the respondents in the uploading. It is
admitted that petitioner should have been given the Earnest Money Deposit along with the tender fee since he was not successful. It is submitted that
the Finance Officer has been taking up the matter with the higher authorities for correcting the mistake, for a long time. It is pointed out that further
time is required for payment, since the accounting year is different.
The petitioner, who should have been given the EMD back immediately, when the financial bid was announced/uploaded, is yet to get the same.
The petitioner has also prayed for a direction to respondents to pay interest for the delayed payment.
As it is seen that mistake occurred on the part of the respondents, there shall be a direction to the respondents to see that the refund of the EMD is
made to the petitioner, within a period of two weeks from today, failing which the respondents would be liable to pay interest to the petitioner at the
rate of 9% per annum for the period, from 04.04.2018 till date of payment.
Accordingly, the writ petition is disposed of.