ORDER :

1. This is an assigned matter by an order dated 23rd November 2017 passed on the administrative side by Hon'ble the Acting Chief Justice, High Court of Jharkhand.

2. The order of blacklisting issued under the signature of the Deputy Commissioner, Chatra vide memorandum dated 30th March 2016 is under challenge in this writ petition.

3. The petitioner is a registered NGO which was issued certificate of registration on 20th September 2001.

4. Under a scheme to cease migration of labors from the State of Jharkhand and illegal migration of interstate labor as well as child labors, the Labor Commissioner issued certain directions to all the Deputy Commissioners of the State of Jharkhand as contained in letter dated 13th August 2014. The petitioner-NGO was issued a work order on 21st October 2014 for survey and identification of interstate migrant labors. A second work order was issued to the petitioner-NGO on 12th November 2014 for survey of child labor within the district of Chatra. It is the case of the petitioner-NGO that on completion of the exercise as indicated in the work orders dated 21st October 2014 and 12th November 2014, it was made payments of Rs. 4.90 lacs and Rs. 3.23 lacs on 25th March 2015. Notwithstanding that, the order contained in memorandum dated 30th March 2016 was issued by which the petitioner-NGO has been blacklisted for an indefinite period.

5. Mr. Shresth Gautam, the learned counsel for the petitioner-NGO, has questioned legality of the order of blacklisting dated 30th March 2016 on the ground of flagrant violation of the rules of natural justice.

6. The learned counsel for the petitioner-NGO relies on the judgments in Erusian Equipment and Chemicals Ltd. vs. State of W.B. (1975) 1 SCC 70, Gorkha Security Services vs. Govt. (NCT of Delhi), (2014) 9 SCC 105 and Kulja Industries Ltd. vs. Western Telecom Project BSNL, (2014) 14 SCC 731 to fortify his contentions that the order of the blacklisting dated 30th March 2016 could not have been issued without a show-cause notice and affording an opportunity to the petitioner-NGO to put up its case before the respondent-authority.

7. Mr. Navneet, the learned AC to SC-V, refers to the letter dated 13th August 2014 which has been placed on record through supplementary counter-affidavit dated 17th July 2018 to submit that the petitioner-NGO committed serious irregularities in execution of the work orders issued vide letters dated 21st October 2014 and 12th November 2014. On 09th October 2015, a report was published in the daily newspaper Dainik Jagran that without conducting survey the petitioner-NGO prepared a report which is established from the fact that though there was no line-hotel at Rimi, still, there is reference of a line-hotel at Rimi in the survey conducted by the petitioner-NGO. The learned counsel submits that a complaint was lodged by one Sanjay Kumar in this regard with the competent authority pursuant thereof the Labor Superintendent, Chatra was directed to conduct an inquiry in the matter. A report dated 17th December 2015 was submitted by the Labor Superintendent, Chatra in which it was reported that survey of the interstate migrant labors was not conducted under the supervision of Labor Enforcement Officers and Panchayat Sewaks and thereby the directions issued vide Para-2 of the letter dated 13th August 2014, and in the letters dated 21st October 2014 and 12th November 2014 were violated. The learned counsel would further submit that the petitioner-NGO prepared forge documents and without conducting any survey prepared a report and secured payment of Rs. 8.30 lacs illegally from the state exchequer and that is the reason the order of blacklisting dated 30th March 2016 was issued by the Deputy Commissioner, Chatra.

8. In the counter-affidavit, the respondent-State has stated thus:

“12. That with regard to the statement made by the petitioner in paragraph-6 to 11, in the instant writ petition under reply, it is humbly stated and submitted that the pet