Tender-based catering licenses under 2017 policy non-renewable per agreement terms; older code inapplicable excluding tenders; no perpetual right after prior binding judgments dismissing renewal claims.

JUDGMENT :

AMIT BANSAL, J.

1. All the aforesaid writ petitions have been filed seeking direction to the respondents to renew the catering license awarded in favour of the petitioners by the respondents.

2. Since all the present writ petitions raise a common issue, all the said petitions are being decided by way of this common judgment.

3. At the hearing on 28^th January, 2026, it was decided that W.P.(C) 19100/2025 and W.P.(C) 11962/2025 shall be the lead matters.

4. Accordingly, the facts in W.P.(C) 19100/2025 have been considered for the purposes of this judgment.

5. On 21^st January, 2020, the respondents allotted to the petitioner a license for operating Catering Stall / Special Minor Unit (Women) No.24 at Platform no.6, Vadodara Railway Station.

6. A Master License Agreement was signed between the petitioner and the respondents on 21^st October, 2020. In terms of the said Master License Agreement, the tenure of the license was for a period of five (5) years from 17^th October, 2020 to 17^th October, 2025.

7. There was an earlier round of litigation in which similarly placed persons who had been allotted catering units at various railway stations under Catering Policy 2017. A batch of writ petitions were filed claiming the following reliefs:

“1. The present batch of petitions under Article 226 of the Constitution of India has been filed inter alia seeking the following reliefs:

a. to declare the Clause No. 11 of the Commercial Circular No. 20 of 2017 dated 27.02.2017 (“Catering Policy 2017”) issued by Railway Board as illegal, arbitrary, unconstitutional, null and void-ab-initio.

b. to declare impugned Licence Agreement executed between petitioner and concerned respondent as illegal, arbitrary, unconstitutional, null and void-ab-initio and also set aside the License Agreement as regards its tenure is concern;

c. a direction to the respondents to renew the license of the petitioners catering units in terms of judgment passed by Supreme Court of India South Central Railways v. S.C.R. Caterers, Dry Fruits, Fruit Juice Stalls Welfare Assn.

d. a direction to the respondents to extend the benefit of extension of license period to the petitioners in proportionate to the reduced license fee during the Covid-19 pandemic period and as per the benefit given to other units.”

8. The aforesaid batch of petitions was decided by a Coordinate Bench of this Court vide judgment dated 30^th May, 2024.

9. The Coordinate Bench held that the licenses of the petitioners were subject to terms and conditions outlined in the Catering Policy 2017 and hence were non-renewable. The relevant observations made in the said judgment are given below:

“14. I have given anxious consideration to the matter. I am unable to agree with the contention of the petitioners that they are entitled to renewal of license.

15. The petitioners participated in the tender for grant of license, knowing fully well that tenure of the license shall be for 5 years only and there shall be no extension/renewal. The petitioners were successful in the tender. License agreements were also executed between the parties. The petitioners are operating their catering units since then. Now at the fag end of expiry of their tenure, they seek to challenge Clause 11 of the Catering Policy 2017 and seek an extension in derogation of the terms of the license. The same cannot be permitted. The petitioners were u