Emtaj Sultan v. State Of West Bengal And ORS.

May 3, 2023 Sl. No.A 109 Court No.19 s.biswas WPA 18635 of 2022 Emtaj Sultan vs.

The State of West Bengal and others Md. Sarwar Jahan Mr. Maidul Islam Kayan Mr. Shahzad Noor Thander ... for the petitioner Mr. Raja Saha Ms. Piyali Sengupta ... for the State The writ petition, in the restricted interpretation of the Court, has become infructuous.

The petitioner has challenged the tender process on various grounds, including noncompliance of the government notification as to the process to be adopted in an e-tender. Nonpublication of e-tender notice in the newspapers, acceptance of earnest money in cash at the office of the gram panchayat, non-supply of receipt, etc. are the basic challenges.

The provision of e-tender was introduced so that the persons living in areas beyond the local limits of the concerned gram panchayat could participate in the process through the centralized portal. The documents could to be uploaded in the portal. Lack of transparency, favouritism and minimum scope for arbitrariness by way of human intervention at the local level, could be avoided by such process. The e-tender process is over and hence cannot be interfered with.

Nothing remains to be decided with regard to prayers in respect of the said e-tender notice. However, it appears that the petitioner had filed a representation before the District Magistrate, Malda, which is annexed as Annexure P/3 at page 26 of the writ petition with several allegations against the activities of the Pradhan.

The District Magistrate, Malda, shall consider the said representation of the petitioner in accordance with law and pass necessary orders, thereby formulating the guidelines as to how the etender processes should be conducted by the Mangalbari Gram Panchayat henceforth.

Accordingly, the writ petition is disposed of. However, there will be no order as to costs.

All the parties are directed to act on the basis of server copy of this order.

(Shampa Sarkar, J.)