IMPORTANT POINTS:
Applications for renewal of licence are to be submitted before 1st January in every year in Form-IV together with Bank Guarantee and Solvency Certificate. Such applications, as per Rules, may be received up to 31st January, after realising a fine of Rs. 5/- on such late applications.

JUDGMENT :

N. NAGARESH, J.

1. W.P. (C) Nos. 11854/2020, 12389/2020 and 18884/2020 are filed by Forest Contractors holding A Class licence, aggrieved by the refusal on the part of the respondents to renew their respective licences. W.P. (C) No. 13399/2020 has been filed by the petitioner seeking to command the 3rd respondent-Divisional Forest Officer to finalise the bid in respect of Ext.P2 tender notice in favour of a participating A Class Contractor under the Forest Department having a valid licence and who has satisfied all the conditions stipulated in Ext.P2 tender notice.

2. The petitioners are holding A Class contract licences issued by the Forest Department. They have been renewing the licence from time to time. The grievance of the petitioners in three of the writ petitions is that for the year 2020-2021, the respondents have introduced a new condition for renewal of A Class licences. The condition is that A Class registered contractors who are not found participated in any of the tenders notified by the Department for timber extraction during last financial year, are not eligible to get renewal of A Class registration. Due to the said arbitrary condition imposed by the respondents, the petitioners are denied renewal of their A Class licence and have been excluded from participating in tenders floated by the Forest Department.

3. The petitioners submit that they are holding A Class licence for undertaking civil works of the Forest Department as also A Class licence for undertaking timber works. They have been participating in tenders, executing works and receiving remunerations for the civil works and timber works of the Forest Department. However, during the last year, they have not participated in any of the timber operations though they have been executing civil works for the Forest Department.

4. Refusal to renew their licence offends their right under Article 19 of the Constitution of India. The decision of the respondents to exclude those Contractors who have not responded to auction notifications relating to timber operations in the last year, is arbitrary and unreasonable and has no nexus with the objects sought to be achieved. The petitioners have not undertaken timber operations on behalf of the Forest Department, does not mean that they have not taken up any timber works. Nor does it mean that the petitioners are not experienced in or incapable of carrying out timber operations.

5. Learned Special Government Pleader opposed the writ petitions and submitted that the decision of the authorities not to renew A Class licences of such Contractors is reasonable and within the powers of the respondents. It was brought to the notice of the office of the Principal Chief Conservator of Forests that a good number of people registered as A Class Contractor in Forest Department for taking up timber extraction work and renewing themselves before the authority in every succeeding year but only a few of them are actually participating in the auction notified by the Department. A large number of A Class registered Contractors remained on paper for name sake purpose. Therefore, it was decided that such Contractors should not be permitted to continue as registered Contractors and should be discouraged in the best interest of Government.

6. Learned Special Government Pleader further urged that the petitioners have no fundamental right to get A Class registration. They have no vested right to get Government Contracts either. The respondents are competent to prescribe such conditions in the public interest for grant or renewal of registration of A Class Contractors.

7. Per contra, the counsel for the petitioners argued that the award of contracts are governed by Rules framed by the Government. Rule 6 of the Rules for Registration of Contractors for Working Down Timber Firewood from Timber Depots (Supply Coupe Contracts) reads as follows:-

“The registering authority can renew the registration or refuse to do so at his discretion following t