Writ courts should not interfere with show-cause notices unless they are issued without jurisdiction or constitute an abuse of process. Administrative authorities must be allowed to conclude the investigation after granting the affected party a fair opportunity for a personal hearing to present evidence and technical defenses.

JUDGMENT :

DEVASHIS BARUAH, J.

Heard Mr. D. Senapati, the learned counsel appearing on behalf of the Petitioner. Mr. B. Gogoi, the learned Additional Advocate General appears on behalf of the Respondent Nos. 1, 2 and 3 and Dr. P. Agarwal, the learned counsel appears on behalf of the Respondent No. 7.

2. None has appeared on behalf of the other Respondents.

3. The Petitioner by way of the present writ petition has challenged before this Court the 2 (two) show cause notices issued on 13.02.2022 and 18.06.2022 as well as the communication dated 04.11.2022.

BRIEF FACTS

4. The brief facts leading to the filing of the present writ petition are that pursuant to an e-Tender issued by the Mission Director, National Health Mission, Assam, inviting bids for entering into a rate contract-cum-empanelment of manufacturers to supply of essential surgical, consumables and chemicals, the Petitioner participated in the said tender process.

5. The tender documents contained various terms and conditions. Clause 22 of the Notice Inviting Tender stipulated “Quality Testing”. Clause 25 related to “Quality Control, Deductions & Other Penalties”. Taking into account the relevance to Sub- Clauses A, B, and C of Clause 25, the same are reproduced hereinunder:

“A. If the samples do not conform to statutory standards, the supplier will be liable for relevant action under the existing laws and the entire stock in such batch should be taken back by the supplier within a period of 30 days of the receipt of the letter/notice from the tender Inviting authority/Procuring Agency. The stock shall be taken back at the expense of the supplier. Tender Inviting authority/Procuring Agency has the right to destroy such items NOT CONFORMING TO STANDARDS if the supplier does not take back the goods within the stipulated time. Tender Inviting Authority/Procuring Agency will arrange to destroy the items NOT CONFORMING TO STANDARDS within 90 days after the expiry of 30 days mentioned above, without further notice, and shall also collect demurrage charges calculated at the rate of 2% per week on the value of the items rejected till such destruction.

B. If any items supplied have been partially or wholly used or consumed after supply and are subsequently found to be inferior in quality or description or otherwise faulty or unfit for use then the contract price or prices of such items will be recovered from the supplier, if payment had already been made to him. In other words the supplier will not be entitled to any payment whatsoever for items found to be of NOT OF STANDARD QUALITY whether consumed or not consumed and the Tender Inviting Authority/Procuring Agency will be entitled to deduct the cost of such batch of items from the any amount payable to the supplier. On the basis of nature of failure, the supplier of the product (s) will be liable for Black Listing.

C. In case of supply of items of NOT OF STANDARD QUALITY, the Directorate of Drugs Control be informed for initiating necessary action on the supplier and that product shall be banned and no further supplies accepted from them till they are legally discharged. The supplier shall also not be eligible to participate in tenders of the Tender Inviting Authority for supply of such items for a period of five subsequent years.”

6. The said tender also stipulated the items and their quantities in Annexure XIII. The items at serial Nos. 35 and 36 are relevant, as they relate to Roll Bandages measuring 10 cm × 5 meters, 100 grams per dozen and 5 cm × 5 meters, 60 grams