The main legal point established in the judgment is that a petitioner's failure to disclose material facts and abuse of process of the court and law can lead to the dismissal of the petition and imposition of exemplary costs.

JAGDISH BHALLA, Actg. C.J. :- This writ petition is directed against the order whereby the tender of the petitioner was rejected and the tender of respondent No. 5 was accepted by respondent No. 2, basically challenging the said acceptance on the ground of arbitrariness and illegal action of the authorities/respondents.

2. A preliminary objection has been raised by the respondents that this writ petition is not maintainable as the petitioner had firstly withheld the material fact of filing the civil suit on the same subject-matter wherein his prayer for maintaining the status quo was refused by the Civil Judge, secondly, petitioner had not come with clean hands; thirdly ignorance of law is no excuse and fourthly whether the petitioner is involved in Bench hunting in the above background, the following facts are necessary :

The petitioner has initially filed a Civil Suit No. 26-A/2006 before the Civil Judge Class-II, Kathgora, District Korba on the same subject-matter with the following prayers :

(Vernacular matter omitted.....Ed.)

3-4. Petitioner has translated the above prayers in English in para 3 of the rejoinder affidavit.

5. After hearing the parties, the Civil Judge by an order dated 10-5-2006 refused the prayer of the petitioner-plaintiff to maintain status-quo between the parties as prayed. According to the preliminary objection, since the interim relief as prayed was refused to the petitioner-plaintiff, it indulged in Bench hunting and filed the present writ petition with the following prayers.

"7. RELIEF(S) SOUGHT

7.1 This Hon'ble Court may kindly be pleased to call for the entire records concerning the case of the petitioner-company from the possession of the respondents, for its kind perusal.

7.2 This Hon'ble Court may kindly be pleased to issue a writ in the nature of certiorari quashing and setting aside the decision taken by the respondent authorities in rejecting the tender of the petitioner company, by declaring the same to be illegal and inoperative in law.

7.3 This Hon'ble Court may kindly be pleased to issue a writ in the nature of mandamus directing the respondents to consider the tender submitted by the petitioner-company in accordance with law and as per the terms and conditions of the tender documents.

7.4 Any other relief or reliefs which this Hon'ble Court may think proper in view of the facts and circumstances of the case, may also kindly be granted.

7.5 Cost of the petition be also awarded."

6. According to the rules of this Court it is mandatory for the petitioner to categorically mention in the pleadings of the writ petition whether any similar case has been filed in some other Court or not ? The said fact has been indicated as under :

"Para 09 of the writ petition - Remedies Exhausted :

The petitioner declares that in view of the facts and circumstances of the case, he is left with no other alternative remedy except to approach before this Hon'ble Court for redressal of his grievances.

Para 10 of the writ petition - Matter Not Pending before any other Court of Law :

The petitioner categorically declared that the matter regarding which this petition has been made, is not pending before any other Court of law."

7. No application was moved by the petitioner/plaintiff before the Civil Court in the pending matter referred to hereinabove for withdrawal of the civil suit before filing of this writ petition on 21-6-2006. It is pertinent to indicate that para 10 of the writ petition quoted hereinabove is silent about the pendency of the Civil Suit. This silence of the petitioner is to be examined in light of the facts stated by the petitioner in the writ petition and in the rejoinder affidavit wherein an attempt has been made to justify why the petitioner has failed to mention filing of the civil suit in the civil Court with respect to the same subject-matter. Para 2 of the rejoinder affidavit reads as under :

"2. The res. Nos. 2 to 4 has filed their return and has contended that the petitioner was not found fit i