Ashutosh Kumar, J.—Heard Mr. P.K. Shahi, learned Senior Advocate for the petitioner and Mr. Naresh Dixit, Special P.P. for the Mines.

2. The petitioner was selected as the successful tenderer for extracting sand from the Sand Ghats of Cluster No.6, Fatehpur Sand Ghat as he had quoted the highest bid of Rs. 4,59,92,373/-. He had deposited the first and second installments of the auction amount. With the completion of the process of tender, the work order was issued on 17.01.2022, the duration of which was till 31.03.2022.

3. For the petitioner to extract sand from the aforenoted Cluster-6 of the Sand Ghat in question, a temporary bridge was required to be constructed over the water-body as there was no approach road/link road. Such contingency was thought of and, therefore, a provision was made in the tender document that the tenderer himself will have to seek ‘No Objection’ for carriage ways, waterways/causeways from the concerned department, particularly the Department Water Resources for making any temporary arrangement for transportation of sand from the river-bed to the main road.

4. For the aforesaid purpose, the petitioner had informed the Chief Engineer and the Executive Engineer of the Flood Control and Drainage Department as well as the Mining Officer for permission to construct temporary bridge by using hume-pipes or using balloon technology for the needful. The petitioner has been fair in stating that the request was acted upon by the Mineral Development Officer when he forwarded the application of the petitioner to the Executive Engineer, Flood Control along with a proposal in requisite format and his recommendation for necessary action to be taken there upon.

5. Based on the aforenoted recommendation, the Executive Engineer is said to have conducted an inspection and submitted a proposal to the Superintending Engineer, Flood Control, Buxar giving his recommendation for grant of ‘No Objection’ for construction of such temporary bridge. The recommendation of the Executive Engineer, referred to above, was ratified by the Superintending Engineer on 04.02.2022 for necessary clearance in that regard. Nonetheless, ‘No Objection’ for construction of temporary bridge was never granted by the Waterways Department with the result that the petitioner could not extract sand. This was communicated promptly by the petitioner to the authorized officer of Bihar State Mining Corporation Limited (hereinafter called “BSMCL”).

6. The petitioner has brought on record the aforenoted communication dated 28.02.2022. All these were happening when an agreement also was executed between the petitioner and the BSMCL for the Cluster No.6, Fatehpur Sand Ghat. When no permission came forthcoming, the BSMCL was again intimated.

The term of the lease expired on 31.03.2022.

7. The petitioner grieves that the very action of giving lease to the petitioner for extracting sand, without clear passage or causeway, was a malafide action on the part of the BSMCL but he limits his prayer in the present writ petition only for refund of the money deposited by him towards the tender agreement.

8. It does not appear from the writ petition whether the petitioner had approached the concerned authority of the Mines Department for the needful but, from the counter affidavit of the Mines Department, it appears that the Department is not ready to return any amount to the petitioner as such demand would be in the nature of compensation sought from the Mines Department which has specifically been proscribed in the tender document [refer to Clause 31 (xii)].

9. A perusal of the tender papers clearly indicates that it shall be the responsibility of the tenderer to seek necessary permission from the Water Resources Department if link-road through the water-body is required to be made/constructed even temporarily for the purposes of extracting and transporting sand. What Clause 29 of the tender document insists upon is that the tenderer has to obtain necessary permission from the D