TMI Blog2004 (10) TMI 610X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... ations made by the Commissioner of the Corporation after the tenders are opened or placed before it. The said writ petition was dismissed by the High Court on an interpretation of clause (c) of Section 73 of the Act as also the locus of the Appellant. THE ACT VIS-@-VIS THE PARTIES : The Respondent-Corporation has been constituted under the provisions of the said Act. The First Respondent herein is the Commissioner of the said Corporation appointed in terms of Section 36 of the Act. The State is also a statutory authority under the Act and may in a given situation exercise its revisional jurisdiction in terms of Section 451 thereof. A Standing Committee is constituted under Section 20 of the said Act. The Chairman of the Standing Committee is elected in terms of Section 21 thereof. The Standing Committee exercises various powers with which we are not concerned at present. Section 73 empowers the Commissioner to execute contracts on behalf of the Corporation but clause (c) thereof restricts the said power in the following terms : (c) no contract which will involve an expenditure (ten lakh rupees) or such higher amount as the Corporation may, with the approval of the ( ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... d 18.5.2001 quoting Rule 24 of the Rule Book of the Corporation, General Meetings, Standing Committee and Transport Committee Working Rules, opined : Therefore before approving any work or resolution the Standing Committee shall examine these documents. Therefore it is essential to make available such documents in the office of the Secretary or in the presence of their representative for the perusal of the speaker or member of the Standing Committee. Rule 24 of the Rules, however, does not appear to have been correctly quoted in the said letter, which is as under : 24. Papers laid on the Table.- Papers which are intended to be placed before the Corporation or any committee for its information shall be kept in the office of the Municipal Secretary and intimation thereof shall be given to every councillor. Such paper shall be open for inspection by any councillor during office hours. The Standing Committee of the Corporation by its letter dated 22.4.2001 brought the aforementioned direction of the State Government to the notice of the First Respondent and requested him to make available all the files in the office of the Municipal Secretary. The said issue was agai ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... under Chapter V of the Schedule of the Act having been disclosed, it was not necessary to supply any further documents. The reasons for non-supply of such documents, according to the learned counsel, as contained in paragraph 4 of the Counter Affidavit are : That there are several other reason also for not submitting the papers, correspondence etc. before the Standing Committee namely : (i) important papers from the tenderers/files containing important information may be removed or the files may be misplaced; (ii) that the Officers of the Corporation normally give their remarks about the responsibility of the rates quoted, ability and integrity of the tenderer. In case of some adverse remarks against a particular tenderer, which if made known, the life of the officer making such remark, may be endangered; (iii) in case, the remarks etc. made in the file are revealed to the tenderers, the tenderers may use force to ensure that other tenderers do not submit their tenders etc. (iv) the forms and the tender documents are open to the public and the rates quoted by each and every tenderer are mentioned in the summary/proposal sent by the Commissioner to the Standing Committee. Th ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... A contract which may be entered into by the Commissioner requires prior approval of the Standing Committee. It is, thus, not a case where an action taken by a statutory authority requires approval which may be granted at a later stage. The approval of the Standing Committee, a bare perusal of Clause (c) would show, is required to be granted before any contract is entered into. The approval of a contract and that too with previous approval by the Standing Committee cannot, thus, said to be an empty formality. [See Canbank Financial Services Ltd. vs. The Custodian Ors. - 2004 (7) SCALE 495 PARA 35]. The Standing Committee is required to perform its functions in terms of the provisions of the said Act. A statutory authority has also a duty to act in public interest as also fairly and in a reasonable manner. With a view to bona fide performing its statutory functions, if the Standing Committee is unable to approve such proposal on the basis of the documents supplied to it, it is entitled to ask for the relevant documents from the Commissioner. Clause (c) of Section 73 is couched in the negative language and, therefore, is imperative in character. [See P.S. Sathappan (Dead) by Lr ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... ment or supplant the reason later on by way of Affidavit. Furthermore, we find that apart from the fact that no such question had been raised by the Commissioner in his letter dated 9.5.2001, the reasons sought to be assigned in the Counter Affidavit either are unjustified or irrelevant. A Statutory Committee should not be denied access to the documents to which it is entitled to, even according to the State Government. Rule 24 whereupon reliance has been placed by the State Government in its letter dated 18.5.2001 (although may not be a verbatim copy of the extant rules) would also go to show that each member of the Committee is entitled to have access to the documents. No privilege had been claimed nor can be claimed in law in the matter of disclosure of such documents. Furthermore, the apprehension expressed by the Commissioner in his Affidavit as regard the consequences which may ensue by disclosure of such documents is not correct, having regard to the fact that the tender had reached the final stage. The contention of the Respondent that all informations had been supplied in the proforma in the light of Chapter V of the Act also appears to be incorrect as in sub-paragraph (E) ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X
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