HC orders CBI probe into granting of contract for 15 lakh number plates in UP.
The Akhilesh Yadav government has received severe strictures due to the omission and commission by the earlier government led by Mayawati.
“There appears to be an institutional breakdown of bureaucracy in UP because of political alienation of a section of its members,” the Allahabad High Court ruled while scrapping the contract awarded to a company having suspicious antecedents for making the high security registration plates (HSRP) when the BSP government was on its last legs.
“Immediate attention requires not only to uplift the morale of the bureaucracy but also make it as an integral but independent part of the government for socio-economic development of the country in national interest,” a bench of justices SC Chaurasia and Devi Prasad Singh observed while directing the Central Bureau of Investigation to probe the entire process of granting the contract for manufacturing 15 lakh new advanced number plates annually.
Allowing a writ petition by the parties who had offered minimum rates for this gigantic contract, the HC said Mayawati government and its bureaucracy overburdened the people with “more than by Rs800 crore because of exorbitant rate of HSRP plates, that too by arbitrary exercise of power by it”.
The 143-page judgment was delivered last week.
The court asked the agency to look into the criminal antecedents of the beneficiary company which had been certified by the home ministry in 2005 by saying, “there appears to be no reason not to draw inference that Shimnit Utsch India (Pvt) Ltd to whom the contract has been awarded, was floated by Nitin Shah to continue with his business and avail contract for HSRP”.
“The allegations contained in the circular of ministry of home affairs, (supra), are serious and contract could not have been awarded to the respondent no 3 in case, necessary material would have been disclosed…”, it said.
“…no contract could have been awarded in case a person has not been considered for selection as manufacturer or vendor for supply of HSRP in case he is found to be connected with activities prejudicial to national security’’ the home ministry added.
The petitioner, a Kolkata-based Celex Technologies Pvt Ltd, had challenged the contract given by the Mayawati government as its lawyer RN Trivedi contended that the entire procedure adopted by the UP government in inviting tender for supply of HSRP was violative of the statutory provisions as the beneficiary company had filed false affidavit and concealed facts.
After screening the facts and various judgments passed by the Supreme Court in matters where political and bureaucratic corruption guided the decision making, the HC said the procedure adopted by the government “reveals beyond doubt that the contract has been awarded on exorbitant rate by negotiation with the change of financial bid which was not permissible under the tender document as well as circular of the chief vigilance commissioner”.
“There appears to be foul play and collusive act in the process adopted by the UP government while awarding the contract”, judges added.
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