Tender on Work of Spraying and Fogging using Fake CA Certificate: Bombay HC sets aside Order of Nashik Municipal Corporation [Read Order]

The Bombay High Court set aside order of Nashik Municipal Corporation wherein the tender on work of spraying and fogging was allowed based on a Fake Chartered Accountant (CA) certificate. M/s. Surthe aj Enterprises, the Petitioner is a proprietary firm prayed to issue writ of certiorari or any other appropriate writ to quash and set aside the order dated 7th February 2023 to the extent it holds that Respondent No.2 - M/s. S and R Pest Control Services as qualified in the technical bid submitted for award of Tender No.2 pursuant to e-tender notice No.3/2022 floated by Respondent No.1 – Nashik Municipal Corporation for executing the work related to daily spraying and fogging activity for control of Vector Borne Diseases under the Urban Malaria Scheme and to supply manpower, machinery and equipments in Nashik Municipal Corporation. Respondent No.2 had submitted a certificate from a Chartered Accountant certifying that its total turn-over in last three years (2018-19, 2019-20 and 2020-21) is more than Rs.4.50 Crores on account of execution of work carried out relating to spraying and fogging, though on inquiries it was revealed that Respondent No.2 had not carried out spraying and fogging work in the relevant period worth more than Rs.4.50 Crores and that the certificate submitted for the said years by Respondent No.2 was incorrect. It was alleged that the Tender Committee, found Respondent No.2 to be ineligible for not having complied with Tender Condition No.6, however, the Additional Commissioner, Nashik Municipal Corporation, relying on the Certificate from another Chartered Accountant held Respondent No.2 to be eligible. It has further been argued that in fact, the Additional Commissioner has made a reassessment of the issue as to whether Respondent No.2 fulfilled condition No.6 which was impermissible in view of the opinion of the Tender Committee. A division bench comprising of Chief Justice Devendra Kumar Upadhyaya and Justice Arif S Doctor observed that the Additional Commissioner, while appending his note and accepting the technical bid of Respondent No.2 has not acted with requisite fairness. The justification sought to be given in Affidavit-in-Reply by Respondent No.2 for declaring Respondent No.2 to have technically qualified, cannot be taken aid of to protect such a decision taken by the Additional Commissioner of the Corporation as such reasons or justification are missing in his note appended to the minutes of the meeting of the Tender Committee. The conclusion drawn by three members of the Committee is based on the documents and evidence available on record. The Additional Commissioner has based his conclusion only on the Chartered Accountant Certificate submitted by Respondent No.2 and has not made any mention even of the opinion submitted by the Chartered Accountant of the Corporation viz. Shri Yogesh Kataria. On the contrary, the conclusion of the three members Committee is based on an evaluation of the documents such as the work orders submitted by Respondent No.2 for the work relating to spraying and fogging which according to the three members Committee aggregated to Rs.60,03,384/- only. The Court held that “the decision-making process adopted in this case by the Additional Commissioner of the Nashik Municipal Corporation/ Respondent No.1 declaring Respondent No.2 to have technically qualified, was not fair or reasonable.” While allowing the Writ Petition, the court quashed the decision declaring Respondent No.2 to be technically qualified and respondent No.1 / Nashik Municipal Corporation is directed to reissue the tender and process the same in the minimum possible time as per the requirement. Mr. Mihir Desai, Senior Advocate appeared for the Petitioner, Mr. M.L. Patil appeared Respondent No.1 and Mr. R. S. Kohli appeared on behalf of Respondent No.2. Support our journalism by subscribing to Taxscan premium. Follow us on Telegram for quick updates