Union Of India vs Bharat Fritz Werner Limited

NON-REPORTABLE IN THE SUPREME COURT OF INDIA CIVIL APPELLATE JURISDICTION CIVIL APPEAL NOS.1332-1333 OF 2022

Union of India …Appellant

Versus

Bharat Fritz Werner Limited & Another …Respondents

ORDER

1. Feeling aggrieved and dissatisfied with some of the observations

made by the High Court of Delhi at New Delhi in the last paragraph of its

order dated 19.01.2021, while disposing of Writ Petition No. 5700/2020,

the Union of India has preferred the present appeals.

2. That respondent no.1 herein filed the writ petition before the High

Court of Delhi being Writ Petition No. 5700/2020 assailing the Letter of

Acceptance dated 05.06.2020 issued by the Union of India in favour of

respondent no.2 herein, in respect of the award of tender pertaining to Signature Not Verified Digitally signed by Jatinder Kaur Date: 2022.02.17

lot No.3; ICB Ref. No. 21/TCSP/GOODS/P41/2018/TR/TC (Package- 16:15:37 IST Reason:

41).

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2.1 By the impugned order and keeping in view the fact that

substantial time has elapsed since the award of the tender in favour of

respondent no.2, the High Court declined to interfere in the proceedings

and disposed of the writ petition reserving liberty in favour of the original

writ petitioner to raise all its pleas and claim the reliefs available to him at

this stage in an appropriate civil proceedings. However, while not

entertaining the writ petition and/or while disposing of the writ petition,

the High Court has made the following observations:

“..We also permit the petitioner to make a representation addressed to the Hon’ble Prime Minister of India highlighting the aspects with regard to wrongful evaluation of the bids and discrimination meted out to some of the bidders. In case such a representation is made, we request the PMO to ensure that the same receives the attention of the Hon’ble Prime Minister of India. We are inclined to grant this liberty to the petitioner in the light of the fact that the petitioner is an Indian manufacturer and we had earlier found merit in the claim of the petitioner in Macpower CNC Machines Limited v. Union of India [W.P. No. 3942/2020] that Indian bidders are being discriminated against, even though the tender conditions itself stipulated that Indian manufacturers would be given preference. Keeping in view the fact that the Government of India is laying emphasis on “Make in India (Atma-Nirbharta), the grievances of the petitioner appear to be correct and, in our view, require serious consideration at the highest level.”

2.2 Feeling aggrieved and dissatisfied with the above observations, the

Union of India has preferred the present appeals and has prayed to

expunge the said observations/remarks.

3. Having heard Shri Balbir Singh, learned Additional Solicitor

General of India, appearing on behalf of the Union of India and Shri

Gaurav Juneja, learned counsel appearing on behalf of respondent no.1

2 herein and having gone through the observations made by the High

Court in the last paragraph of its order, made while disposing of the writ

petition, reproduced hereinabove, we are of the opinion that the

observations made by the High Court, reproduced hereinabove, were

absolutely unwarranted. The High Court was not deciding a Public

Interest Litigation. The High Court did not even decide the writ petition

on merits. On the contrary, in the earlier paragraph, it was observed that

it had not gone into the merits of the writ petitioner’s claim or the

respondent’s defence. In such circumstances, such general

observations should have been avoided by the High Court and the High

Court ought to have restricted itself to the controversy between the

parties before it. Even otherwise, on the basis of a solitary case, general

observations could not have been made by the High Court that the

Indian bidders are being discriminated against. We advise the High

Courts not to make general observations which are not warranted in the

case. The High Courts shall refrain from making sweeping observations

which are beyond the contours of the controversy and/or issues before

them.

4. In view of the above, the present appeals succeed in part. The

observations made by the High Court in its order dated 19.01.2021,

namely,

3 “..We also permit the petitioner to make a representation addressed to the Hon’ble Prime Minister of India highlighting the aspects with regard to wrongful evaluation of the bids and discrimination meted out to some of the bidders. In case such a representation is made, we request the PMO to ensure that the same receives the attention of the Hon’ble Prime Minister of India. We are inclined to grant this liberty to the petitioner in the light of the fact that the petitioner is an Indian manufacturer and we had earlier found merit in the claim of the petitioner in Macpower CNC Machines Limited v. Union of India [W.P. No. 3942/2020] that Indian bidders are being discriminated against, even though the tender conditions itself stipulated that Indian manufacturers would be given preference.

Keeping in view the fact that the Government of India is laying emphasis on “Make in India (Atma-Nirbharta), the grievances of the petitioner appear to be correct and, in our view, require serious consideration at the highest level.”

are hereby ordered to be expunged/set aside from the order passed by

the High Court.

5. The present appeals are partly allowed to the aforesaid extent. No

costs.

………………………………..J. [M.R. SHAH]

NEW DELHI; ………………………………..J. FEBRUARY 17, 2022. [B.V. NAGARATHNA]

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