“We smell a rat,” the court said on Monday while asking the corporation to explain how it misinterpreted a court order and published a wrong corrigendum in newspapers seeking fresh tenders for beautifying gardens.
The Bombay high court feels BMC officials are corrupt but not stupid.
“We smell a rat,” the court said on Monday while asking the corporation to explain how it misinterpreted a court order and published a wrong corrigendum in newspapers seeking fresh tenders for beautifying gardens in all the 24 wards of the city.
The court was hearing a petition filed by a couple of contractors challenging the BMC’s decision to issue an advertisement asking for fresh tenders.
On July 11, the high court had stayed further issuance of work orders but the BMC printed a corrigendum saying the tendering had been stayed by the court and it would recommence only after further orders from the court.
“This is a big fraud and the municipal commissioner should be personally present in court,” a division bench of justices DK Deshmukh and RG Ketkar observed. Though the court has not summoned the commissioner, it has asked the BMC to file a detailed affidavit explaining the mistake and name the person/s responsible.
The BMC will also have to name lawyers who directed the BMC to issue a corrigendum. The bench also said, “We have taken a serious note of this. Whoever is responsible will have to pay through his nose. We don’t want our orders to be misinterpreted.”
Deshmukh said the court disliked somebody paraphrasing its orders. “Show us where we said this in the order. We have reasons to believe that this was done deliberately.”
When BMC senior counsel Anil Sakhare said the corporation would give an explanation, the bench said, “They [BMC officials] have been using all institutions for their benefit. Now, even the high court is being used. We want a thorough inquiry into it.”
The petitioning contractors have an agreement, slated to expire in 2013, to develop and beautify gardens, recreation grounds and play grounds.
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