Madras High Court (File|PTI)
A division bench of the Madras High Court has upheld an order of the Tender Evaluation Committee (TEC) of TN Police Housing Corporation rejecting a bid of P&C Projects (P) Limited for constructing police quarters at Nungambakkam and Pudupet here.
A bench of Justices K K Sasidharan and R Subramanian upheld the rejection order, while allowing a writ appeal from the housing corporation challenging the orders of a single judge, on Tuesday.
Originally, the corporation invited tenders for building 1,036 houses at a cost of Rs 136.79 crore at Nungambakkam. It also solicited tenders for constructing another 596 houses at Pudupet at a cost of Rs 81.32 crore. P&C was one among the five bidders. However, the TEC, by an order dated August 30, 2016 rejected its bids.
Aggrieved, the company moved the High Court and a single judge on December 20, 2016 allowed the petition. Hence, the present appeal from the housing corporation.
Allowing the appeal and setting aside the single judge’s order, the bench said “The law, as it stands today, as could be culled out from later judgments of the Supreme Court, is that the tender conditions which have been violated are stipulations which would result in the consequence of the tender being rejected or they are only ancillary which will not have a bearing on the final decision of the Tender Evaluation Committee cannot be gone into by the court.
It is for the Tender Evaluation Committee to decide whether the non-compliance of the conditions would result in disqualification or rejection of the tender at the pre-evaluation stage,” the bench said.
Plea to book Rajini for remarks on Sterlite protesters REJECTED
Chennai: The Madras High Court on Wednesday rejected a plea for a direction to the police to register a complaint against superstar Rajinikanth for his alleged utterances about the agitators who fought for closure of Sterlite factory in Thoothukudi on May 22 and 23. It was alleged that Rajini had described the protestors as ‘anti-social elements’ and held them responsible for the violence, at a press conference after visiting the injured in a hospital.
Justice PN Prakash refused to direct the police to register a case on the complaint made by one D Silambarasan of Hosur. The judge referred to his own judgment delivered on September 27, 2016, in which he made it clear that moving the HC directly for registration of an FIR, without first approaching the Station House officer and the Superintendent of Police and then the local Magistrate was not maintainable. In view of this, the present petition is not maintainable, the judge said.
