Public authorities must act fairly and cannot arbitrarily terminate contracts without justification, reinforcing the legitimacy of expectations within public-private partnerships.

JUDGMENT :

Vipul M. Pancholi, CJ.

The petitioner has filed the present petition under Article-226 of the Constitution of India in which the petitioner has prayed for setting aside the short term tender notice dated 02.07.2025, bearing PR No. 007741 (Election) 2025-26, issued under the signature of District Election Officer-cum-District Magistrate, Sitamarhi by which, without issuing any notice to the petitioner, the work under agreement dated 20^th December, 2023 has been advertised. The petitioner has also prayed that the respondent authorities be directed to continue the agreement dated 20^th December, 2023 till its validity, i.e. 19.12.2026. Petitioner has also prayed that the respondent be directed to produce the signed copy of agreement dated 20.10.2023, executed between the petitioner and the respondent authorities.

2. At this stage, it is pertinent to note that after the present petition is filed by petitioner, the concerned respondent issued another short term tender notice dated 18.07.2025 and thereafter very short term tender notice dated 19.07.2025 and, therefore, the petitioner has filed I.A. No. 1/2025 as well as I.A. No. 2/2025 respectively for setting aside the aforesaid tender notices.

Factual Matrix

3. Brief facts leading to filing of the present petition are as under:

3.1. It is the case of the petitioner that notice inviting tender (in short ‘NIT’) dated 23.08.2023 bearing PR No.007685 (Election) 2023-24 was issued by respondent No. 5 for execution of data entry, scanning, uploading, checklist printing, printing of electoral lists and all other types of work related to electoral list under preparation of photo voter list through ERO-NET, revision/brief revision of electoral list and continuous updating for all eight Vidhan Sabhas of the district of Sitamarhi.

3.2. It is the case of the petitioner that petitioner submitted its bid in the said NIT. Thereafter, petitioner was declared L-1 in the financial bid by the District Purchase Committee. Therefore, on 18.09.2023, direction has been given to Deputy Election Officer, Sitamarhi to enter into an agreement with the petitioner in accordance with the terms and conditions of the tender.

3.3. It is the case of the petitioner that before the petitioner entered into an agreement, work order dated 25.10.2023 came to be issued by Deputy Election Officer, Sitamarhi in favour of the petitioner.

3.4. It is the case of the petitioner that the petitioner was thereafter called in the office of Deputy Election Officer, Sitamarhi for entering into an agreement. The agreement dated 20^th December, 2023 was given to the petitioner which the petitioner signed and thereafter gave it to the Deputy Election Officer, Sitamarhi, however, Deputy Election Officer, Sitamarhi did not sign the said agreement and, in fact, an assurance was given that the agreement will be signed and delivered to the petitioner.

3.5. Petitioner has further stated that, as per Clause-17 of the agreement dated 20^th December, 2023, the agreement is valid for a period of three years, i.e. upto 19.12.2026 and could be extended, if required, on finding the work satisfactory, for a year. It is further stated that performance bank guarantee of Rs. 2,00,000/- was also provided on 15.03.2024 which is valid upto 17.03.2027.

3.6. It is further stated that the respondent authority issued work orders in favour of the petitioner from time to time and petitioner also executed the entire work as per the work orders and completion certificates were also issued by the respondent authority.

3.7. Now, it is the grievance of the petitioner that on 02.07.2025, a very short term tender notice came to be issued by the respondent authority