ORDER :

J.B.PARDIWALA, J.

1. By this writ application under Article 226 of the Constitution of India, the writ applicants have prayed for the following reliefs;

“(A) Your Lordship may be pleased to issue a writ of mandamus and/or any other appropriate writ, order or direction quashing and setting aside the order dated 31.5.2021 passed by the respondent at Annexure-A to the petition qua blacklisting petitioner No.1 Company for a period of 3 years;

(B) That Your Lordships may further be pleased to issue appropriate writ, order or direction directing the respondent to release earnest money deposit of Rs.2.50,000/- and the security deposit to the tune of Rs.2,50,000/- in favour of the petitioners forthwith;

(C) That Your Lordships may be pleased to direct respondent to continue and complete remaining tenure of the contract at Annexure-C to the petition memo;

(D) Pending admission, hearing and final disposal of the petition, Your Lordships may be pleased to stay further implementation, operation and execution of the order dated 31.5.2021 passed by the respondent at Annexure-A to the petition;

(E) Cost of this petition may kindly be awarded;

(F) Any other and further relief or reliefs to which this Hon’ble Court deemed fit, in the interest of justice may kindly be granted.”

2. The facts, giving rise to this writ application, may be summarized as under;

2.1 The writ applicant No.1 is a Company registered under the provisions of the Companies Act, 1956. of which the writ applicant No.2 is the Authorized Director. It appears from the materials on record that the respondent invited E-Tender for running the Jan Seva Kendra and E-Dhara Center for issuance of revenue record by publishing a tender notice.

2.2 The writ applicants participated in the E-Tender process and were declared as the lowest E-tender offered by the Company.

2.3 The work orders dated 17.06.2020 and 4.11/12.2020 respectively were issued by the respondent to the writ applicants. It came to the notice of the respondent that the company had neglected to pay the salary to the employees who were appointed through outsourcing. It also came to the notice of the respondent that the Company failed to deposit the requisite amount towards the Provident Fund in the respective accounts of the employees. In such circumstances, referred to above, a show-cause notice came to be issued by the respondent dated 15th March, 2021 calling upon the writ applicants to show-cause as to why the contract should not be terminated and the Company be put on a Holiday/blacklist. The show-cause notice reads thus;

“Jansampark/ATVT/2019-20

RPAD

Office of the Collector

District Seva Sadan-1, Shroff road, near Jam tower,

Rajkot

Date:15-03-2021

Subject: To blacklist agency

Reference: Letter of even number dated 11-02-2021 and 05-03-2021.

Show cause notice:

You have been assigned contract to provide computer operators at Janseva kendra/ATVT center through outsourcing by order no. Jansampark-janseva kendra-e dhara tender- Vsh- 20, dated 17-06-2020 and 04-12-2020. Salary is not paid regularly upto 5th of every month by you to Computer operators as per condition no.27 of the contract. Amount of PF of operators is being deducted till date since contract was assigned. It has come to notice that amount of PF is not credited to the account of operators from July 2020 to February 2021. Thus, it has come to notice that financial misconduct is being committed by you.

It is to further state that oral/ telephonic representation is made by operators in this regard. Moreover, you were instructed in writing by the above referred letter in this regard. You have not responded to it, nor any explanation has been submitted by you in that regard which is a very serious matter.

Upon considering the aforementioned matters, you have violated conditions of application and contract assigned through order no.Jansampark-janseva kendra-e dhara tender- Vsh- 20, dated 17-06-2020 and 04-12-2020. Therefore, you are asked to submit written clarification, in person