India News | HC Correct Tender Value in Its Order, Smog Tower Not to Be Installed Now
Get latest articles and stories on India at LatestLY. The Delhi High Court has made a correction in its verdict by which it had directed a logistics company to deposit a 10 per cent amount of a contract value awarded to it to be utilised for the installation of a smog tower, owing to certain arithmetical error.
New Delhi, Jun 6 (PTI) The Delhi High Court has made a correction in its verdict by which it had directed a logistics company to deposit a 10 per cent amount of a contract value awarded to it to be utilised for the installation of a smog tower, owing to certain arithmetical error.
Therefore, the high court said that its earlier order by which it asked for the installation of a smog tower here is not possible because of the inadequate amount that would be deposited.
The June 1 verdict had noted that the contract value was Rs 125 crores, but on June 3 it was brought to the notice of the court that the actual contract value was over Rs 12 crore only.
On June 3, the counsel for the logistics company pointed out to the court that there was a certain arithmetical error in the figure and the 10 per cent amount of the contract value would be Rs 1.21 crore and not 12.5 crores as arrived earlier.
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The court had on June 1, directed the logistics company, which had concealed the information regarding its blacklisting in a tender matter, to deposit the amount of Rs 12.5 crore.
In its corrected order of June 3, the court noted that the amount to be ploughed back by the logistics company would be 10 per cent of the total amount which would be Rs 1.21 crore, instead of Rs 12.5 crore and it would be highly inadequate for installation of the smog tower.
A bench of Acting Chief Justice Vipin Sanghi and Justice Jasmeet Singh said since this amount of Rs 1.21 crore would be highly inadequate for setting up a smog tower, the money should be deposited with the court within six weeks which would be disbursed to various authorities.
"Since the aforesaid amount would be highly inadequate to meet the purpose for which we directed the amount to be utilised, namely for setting up of a Smog Tower, we direct the respondent no.3 (logistics company) to deposit the said amount in this court within six weeks, " the bench said.
It said that Rs 25 lakhs each be deposited with the Delhi State Legal Services Authority, Delhi High Court Legal Services Committee, Prime Minister's National Relief Fund and Armed Forces Battle Casualties Welfare Fund.
Besides, Rs 21,49,821 be deposited with the Indigent and Disabled Lawyers Committee, it said.
"To the aforesaid extent, our judgment of June 1 stands corrected. List the matter for reporting compliance on July 19," it said.
n its June 1 order, the high court had said the Air Quality Index (AQI) level during the COVID-19 period showed a decline due to lockdown and halting of industrial activities, however, now that the commercial activities are going back to the pre-COVID level, “we are on the same path of the air quality becoming ‘very poor' and ‘severe'”.
It had directed that Rs 12.5 crores be deposited by the firm with the Registrar General of the Delhi High Court and he shall call all the stakeholders and ensure that the smog tower is installed at a suitable place where it will contribute towards reducing the AQI levels of Delhi.
The court's judgement came while deciding a plea by CJDARCL Logistics Ltd, a company engaged in the business of logistics and transportation of goods across India by road and rail, seeking direction to RITES Ltd to cancel the bids of the other private company and grant the tender to the petitioner, being the second-lowest bidder.
RITES Ltd had floated an e-tender in August last year for the engagement of freight forwarder for transportation of export project and both the petitioner and another private firm had participated in it.
The case of the petitioner was that the RITES Ltd, in an erroneous manner, first opened the commercial bids and subsequently the technical bids of the bidders, pursuant to which the other private firm was declared as an L1 bidder, while the petitioner company was declared as L2 bidder.
The petitioner said that the private firm was liable to be disqualified as they were banned by the Ministry of Defence and in order to win the tender, the firm had deliberately suppressed the two banning orders and submitted a false declaration.
It said that despite being made aware of the suppression and misdeclaration by the private firm, the RITES Ltd cleared the technical bid of that firm and declared it as the L1 bidder in contravention to their tender conditions and proceeded to award the contract to it.
On June 3, the counsel for the logistics firm pointed out that the contract value was Rs 12,14,98,210.
The counsel for RITES Ltd submitted that the reference of the figure of Rs 125 crores in its counter-affidavit relates to the value of the consignment of railway coaches which had been lifted by the cranes to be made available under the contract in question. PTI SKV
(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)