Govt. Officials Like 'Kumbhkarana'; Need To Be Woken Up From Slumber By Using Different Means: Jammu & Kashmir High Court

The Bench of newly appointed Acting Chief Justice Rajesh Bindal further observed,

"As has been mentioned in Ramayana, Demon King Rawana had to use a lot of noise and different means to wake up Kumbhkarana, when his kingdom was in trouble. Here also the government officials are to be woken up from slumber by using different means."

The matter before the Court

The Court was hearing a writ petition filed by the National India Construction Company, challenging the rejection of the bid submitted by it during technical evaluation for construction of a road under the Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana (PMGSY).

As per the procedure, firstly technical bids were to be opened and those who qualified that stage were to be considered for financial evaluation.

However, the petitioner's bid was rejected during technical evaluation and the reason assigned was "rejected-technical"

It was submitted by the Petitioner that it was deprived of participation in the tendering process in the last seven years on account of the frivolous dispute created by the department.

Court's Order

Noting that the petitioner was not fulfilling the conditions as it did not have the requisite amount of turnover during five previous financial years before the e-NIT was issued, the Court held that the challenge to the rejection of its bid on account of non-fulfilment of those conditions, cannot be entertained after his technical bid had been rejected.

Thus, the Court dismissed the petition.

Court's Observations

The Court, in its order, noted that in the instant case, a project for creation of infrastructure in Union Territory of Jammu & Kashmir had been put on hold, on account of interim stay granted by this Court on 17.04.2018.

"As usual the department was sleeping over the matter. They did not even take care to file objections immediately after receipt of notice", said the Court.

Noting that in the instant case, replies/objections were not filed in time, the Court stated that in some cases replies/objections are not filed even for a decade.

In this context, the Court observed as to how lightly the litigation is taken by offices in Jammu & Kashmir and that the result of "this casualness is causing huge loss to the public exchequer".

Further, the Court remarked that despite its order of May, 2019, the official respondents "continued sleeping over the matter for more than one year and objections were not filed to the writ petition. To wake them up, they had to be scolded."

The Court also observed that "apparently there has to be some monitoring authority standing on the heads of all departments with a stick to take even routine work from them…there can be some vested interest to keep silent and delay execution of projects."

Lastly, the Court said,

"All the government employees are trustees of the public money and time has come that people can ask them to be accountable for not using the same properly or wasting the same. The way of working and attitude of shirking responsibility will not change unless the people at the helm of affairs are held accountable for their actions and inactions; of course, bonafides are always seen."

Court's observation regarding the cost of the Project

While observing that many similar instances have come before the Court earlier, the Court found it strange that any successful bidder is ready and willing to execute the project at the same rates even after five to ten years after the same was allotted.

To this, the Court said,

"Apparently, it can be for one reason that the rates at which the works are allotted are so high that any contractor is able to execute the same even after five to ten years of allotment thereof, even if the time provided for completion of the work maybe 1-2 years."

Further, noting that there could be an issue of quality of construction, the Court directed the Chief Secretary, Government of Jammu & Kashmir to refer some cases for test audit to the Central Road Research Institute, New Delhi for quality of the works being executed here.

The Court ordered that the estimated cost of the project calculated by the department should also be gone into by the Institute.

Case title - M/s National India Construction Company v. State of J&K and others [OWP No. 672/2018 (O & M)]

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