IMPORTANT POINT
While exercising power of judicial review Court should examine decision making process and not the decision.

JUDGMENT :

B.R. GAVAI, J.

1. Leave granted.

2. The present appeals challenge the Judgment and Order passed by the Division Bench of the Madhya Pradesh High Court, Bench at Indore, dated 31.08.2017 thereby allowing the writ petition filed by respondent No. 1 herein and the subsequent Order dated 05.07.2018 thereby, rejecting the Review Petition filed by the appellant.

3. The factual background, in brief, giving rise to the present appeals is as under:

The appellant, which is a Municipal Council, duly constituted under the Madhya Pradesh Municipality Act, 1961 (hereinafter referred to as the “said Act”) had invited tenders for allotment of land on lease, for a period of 30 years. The land was admeasuring 163176 sq. ft. situated in Scheme No. 1A (Commercial-cum-Residential Use), Neemuch. The Notice Inviting Tenders (“NIT” for short) was published in the daily newspapers, viz. Nai Duniya, Dainik Bhaskar, Free Press and Dashpur Express. Respondent No. 1, which is a registered partnership firm along with other bidders had submitted the tender thereby giving an offer of Rs. 5,81,00,106/-. It had also deposited the earnest money amounting to Rs. 47,00,000/-. The bids of the participants were opened in presence of the representatives of all the bidders. The bid of respondent No. 1 herein was found to be highest.

4. The appellant issued a letter dated 27.09.2008 thereby informing respondent No. 1 that its bid was accepted. Respondent No. 1 was directed to deposit an amount of Rs. 1,45,25,050/- i.e. 25% of the bid amount within a period of seven days. Respondent no. 1 in accordance therewith deposited the aforesaid amount on 01.10.2008.

5. It appears that an objection was raised by two members of the Municipal Council under the provisions of Section 323 of the said Act before the Collector with regard to the said tender process. It further appears, that the Collector vide Order dated 18.07.2008 had stayed further proceedings of the tender process. Vide Order dated 23.12.2008, the Collector disposed of the proceeding observing therein, that the proposal be sent for approval of the State Government in the Urban Administrative and Development Department, respondent No. 2 herein, under the provisions of Section 109 of the said Act.

6. Thereafter, it appears that, there was certain correspondence between the Urban Administrative and Development Department, on one hand, and the Divisional Revenue Commissioner of Ujjain, respondent No. 3 herein, on the other hand. Finally, respondent No. 3 passed an order dated 03.07.2010 observing therein that, the tenders invited in connection with transfer of the said land were not competitive. He further observed in the said Order, that the NIT was published only in Indore edition of two Hindi Newspapers at Indore and as such there was no wide circulation. As such, he rejected the proposal of the Municipal Council and returned the same with the direction to invite the tenders again by publishing the NIT in at least one National level English newspaper and one State level reputed Hindi newspaper. Being aggrieved thereby, respondent No. 1 herein approached the Madhya Pradesh High Court in Writ Petition No. 12204 of 2010. The Division Bench vide Order dated 31.08.2017 allowed the writ petition thereby quashing and setting aside the Order dated 03.07.2010 passed by respondent No. 3 and further directing him to grant approval on behalf of the State Government for allotment of the land on lease in favour of respondent no. 1. The appellant, thereafter, preferred Review Petition No. 1072 of 2017. The same was rejected. Hence, the present appeals challenging both the Orders dated 31.08.2017 and 05.07.2018.

7. We have heard Mr. Harsh Parashar, learned counsel appearing on behalf of the appellant and Mr. Kalyan Banerjee, learned senior counsel appearing on behalf of the respondents.

8. For appreciating the rival controversy, it will be relevant to refer to the provisions of Section 109 of the said Act. Section 109 reads as foll