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1988 Supreme(SC) 630

SUPREME COURT OF INDIA
SABYASACHI MUKHARJI, M.H. KANIA AND S. RANGANATHAN, JJ.
Fasih Chaudhary, Petitioner
Versus
Director General, Doordarshan and others, Respondents.
Spl. Leave Petn. (Civil) No. 9814 of 1988
Decided on 28-9-1988.

Advocates:
BINA GUPTA, GOVINDA MUKHOTY, INDU GOSWAMI, IRFAN AHMED, Kuldip Singh, M.SAFID, PINAKI MISHRA, R.N.KESHWANI, SUSHMA SURI

Headnote:

Practising discrimination - special leave – contract - This petition is for special leave to appeal from the decision of High Court - By the said Order High Court dismissed the writ petition filed by the petitioner - In the said writ petition, petitioner had asked for a direction to Union of India and/or Doordarshan to accept script of the petitioner and eventually to give him the contract - High Court in its order recorded that there was no substance in allegation that respondent had been preferred over the petitioner by practising discrimination - There was a proposal to produce T. V. Serials based on national integration, communal harmony, against exploitation of child labour, equal status for women etc. etc. and last date for submitting such projects - It was further announced by Doordarshan that project should be completed in terms of the guidelines issued by Doordarshan, respondent - Said guidelines for sponsored programme to be produced by sponsor indicate certain requirement for the proposals - Guidelines, inter alia, state in clause (2) that proposals for sponsored programmes should consist of the following, break-up of the story in episodes and broadline of treatment,complete synopsis of each episode, detailed scenario script of at least one episode – Held, court attention was drawn to names of the members of Committee - As mentioned hereinbefore, Committee did not find proposal of the petitioner and other person either attractive or interesting enough in awarding the T. V. Serial on t aspect of national integration of the lifetime of Mirza Ghalib - After it was so found, idea of respondent was considered and the proposal was duly considered - Court have satisfied ourselves from the records produced at the time of the hearing and from the affidavits filed before us that there was objectivity in the actual consideration of different proposals and that there was fairness in the decision and that no malice or ill-will coloured the decision-making process in this case - Petitioner was not refused proper consideration because what respondent described the petitioner as one who is a maverick - In the aforesaid light and in the facts of this case and principles of law that are applicable, court are satisfied that High Court was right and the decision of the respondent does not call for any interference - Special Leave Petition must fail and is dismissed accordingly - Petition dismissed.

JUDGMENT

SABYASACHI MUKHARJI, J.:— This petition is for special leave to appeal from the decision of the High Court of Delhi, dated 13th July, 1988. By the said Order the High Court dismissed the writ petition filed by the petitioner. In the said writ petition, the petitioner had asked for a direction to the Union of India and/or the Doordarshan to accept the script of the petitioner and eventually to give him the contract. The High Court in its order recorded that there was no substance in the allegation that Shri Gulzar, respondent No. 2 herein, had been preferred over the petitioner by practising discrimination. There was a proposal to produce T. V. Serials based on national integration, communal harmony, against exploitation of child labour, equal status for women etc. etc. and the last date for submitting such projects was 7th May, 1986. It was further announced by the Doordarshan that the project should be completed in terms of the guidelines issued by the Doordarshan, respondent No. 1. The said guidelines for sponsored programme to be produced by sponsor indicate certain requirement for the proposals. The guidelines, inter alia, state in clause (2) that the proposals for sponsored programmes should consist of the following :

(a) break-up of the story in episodes and broadline of treatment;

(b) complete synopsis of each episode;

(c) detailed scenario script of at least one episode; and

(d) confirmed names and addresses of Director, Cameraman, Music Director, Script/Dialogue Writer, Main Artists etc.

2. Clause (3) of the said guidelines indicated further that all proposals received by the Doordarshan will be given a reference number and acknowledged. In case proposals not accompanied by any of the foregoing documents mentioned aforesaid are received, a suitable indication would be given by the Doordarshan to the producer along with the acknowledgement. It further indicated that a proposal would be considered "complete" only after the required number of copies of the documents mentioned aforesaid were supplied. It appears, therefore, that a proposal though not containing all the particulars would still be a proposal but not a "complete" proposal but the proposal will be complete only after the required number of copies of all the documents mentioned hereinbefore are supplied. The theme with which the petitioner was concerned and with which also the proposal of respondent No. 2 was concerned, was the life and history of the great Urdu poet Mirza Ghalib. It was the case of the petitioner that before the last date for the submission of the project on 7th May, 1986 though the petitioner had submitted his project, respondent No. 2 had not.

3. The High Court did not accept the aforesaid allegation. We have examined the records and the acknowledgment sheets in original which were produced in the Court for our satisfaction and it appears to us that the High Court was right on this point and the petitioner was not. Respondent No. 2 submitted, it appears, the theme of the matter by a letter dated 4th February, 1986. This was not undoubtedly a complete project. It was only on the theme of the project, namely, the life and history of the great poet Mirza Ghalib. The petitioner, however, by a letter dated 13th March, 1986 submitted the proposal with 13 episodes giving the entire idea of his project depicting the life of Mirza Ghalib and his contribution to the national integration. The final decision to award the project to respondent No. 2 was taken, it appears, some time in November, 1986 after considering three complete proposals on the project. It appears to us from the records -that the Doordarshan authorities found that the project submitted by the petitioner was not "attractive or interesting". It appears further from the letter that the Doordarshan authorities did not find the proposal of the petitioner to be "attractive or interesting" enough. There was one more proposal given by another person apart from the petitioner and responde








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