The Hindu 23.12.2010
Plea seeking to quash Chennai Corporation notice dismissed
CHENNAI: The Madras High Court on Wednesday dismissed a writ petition seeking to quash a tender notification of the Chennai Corporation dated December 9 this year dividing road laying works in the city under three broad packages. In his order, Justice M. Jaichandren said the petitioners, Paver Finish Road Builders' Association, Chennai, and 11 others, had not been able to substantiate their claim that the classification of the works into major packages had been done in a mala fide manner. There was nothing to show that the notification was arbitrary or illegal.
In the notification, the entire works in the city had been divided into three packages — 84 roads at a cost of Rs.1834 lakh, 79 roads at a cost of Rs.1943 lakh and 103 roads at a cost of Rs.1950 lakh.
The petitioners prayed the court to quash the notification and issue a consequent direction to the authorities to split the works road-wise, division-wise, unit-wise and zone-wise and issue a fresh tender and proceed in accordance with law. The members of the association, who were registered Class-I contractors, were eligible to participate in the tenders, the value of which may even be above Rs.75 lakh.
The tender conditions made it impossible for them to participate in the tender process. It was for the first time in many years that the civic body had divided the works into three major packages, which required very heavy investments in material, men and machinery. In spite of representations to the authorities, no action was taken to issue tenders by splitting the works into smaller packages, enabling the association members to participate in the tender process.
