Surya Alloy Ind. Ltd. And ANR. v. East Central Railway And ORS.

08.11.2021 Item No.17 Crt.No.11 K.B. M.A.T. 659 of 2020 with I.A. No. CAN 1 of 2020 Surya Alloy Industries Limited and another -Vs- East Central Railway & Ors.

(Via Video Conference) Mr. Jaydip Kar Mr. Tanmoy Chakraborty Mr. Siddharth Shroff ... For the appellants.

Mr. Kashinath Roy ... For the Respondent Nos.1 to 5.

Party/parties is/are represented in the order of their name/names as printed above in the cause title. Mr. Roy, Learned Counsel appearing for the East Central Railway (ECR)/Respondents produces copy of a document dated 11th August, 2020 addressed to the appellant No.1/Company. It is submitted that the ECR in faithful compliance of the order of the Hon'ble Single Bench dated 30th June, 2020.

Learned Counsel for the Railways reiterates the position that the appellant No.1/Company failed to submit the Bank Guarantee (BG) within time and thus stood debarred from participating in the tender. Mr. Kar, Learned Counsel appearing for the appellants, disputes the position taken by Mr. Roy. It is submitted that the BG was submitted within time and,

following the terms of the tender the Bank had mailed a copy of the BG to the ECR.

It is further submitted that the order dated 11th August, 2020 of the Chief Engineer, ECR was passed without granting the appellants an opportunity of hearing as directed by the order dated 30th June, 2020 (supra). The appellants claim that they be granted the opportunity of explaining the status of the BG for a correct appreciation of facts by the Chief Engineer.

Having heard the parties and considering the materials placed, this Court is of the view that the ends of justice shall be served in the event the appellants are permitted a detailed hearing by the Chief Engineer, ECR. Accordingly, the Chief Engineer, ECR shall grant the appellants an opportunity of hearing. The appellants shall be entitled to be represented by their Learned Counsel and rely on documents at the hearing, if and so advised.

Upon such hearing and on examination of the materials placed, the Chief Engineer, ECR shall be entitled to pass appropriate orders.

Let the above directed exercise be completed not later than a period of two weeks from the date of communication of this order It is made clear that this Court has not gone into the merits of the case.

In the light of the above order passed, the order impugned dated 11th August, 2020 remains permanently stayed.

Both the appeal and application respectively being MAT 659 of 2020 with I.A. No. CAN 1 of 2020 stand accordingly disposed of.

In view of the direction passed above, the Writ Petition being W.P. No.6694 (W) of 2020 also stands disposed of.

Urgent photostat certified copy of this order, if applied for, be handed over to the parties on compliance of necessary formalities.

All parties shall also act in terms of a copy of the order downloaded from the official website of this Court. (Kesang Doma Bhutia, J.) (Subrata Talukdar,J.)