Blacklisting entails severe civil consequences, often described as 'civil death'. It necessitates mandatory compliance with principles of natural justice, requiring a specific, unambiguous show-cause notice that explicitly informs the affected party of the state's intent to impose such a penalty to allow for a meaningful opportunity to respond.

JUDGMENT :

Tarlok Singh Chauhan, C.J.

1. Heard the parties.

2. The instant writ petition has been filed for grant of the following substantive reliefs:-

“a. Quashing and setting aside the office order as contained in Memo no. 2095 dated 30.11.2023 (Annexure-10) by which the petitioner's services as Placement Agency has been terminated, the security deposit forfeited and further the petitioner company has been blacklisted for a period of three years;

AND b. Quashing and setting aside the office order as contained in Memo no. 2096 dated 30.11.2023 (Annexure-11) by which the petitioner has been directed to hand over of retail liquor shops for its operation to another placement agency;

AND c. Consequent to setting aside of the office order as contained in Memo no. 2095 dated 30.11.2023 and Memo no. 2096 dated 30.11.2023, reinstate the petitioner company's services as Placement Agency supplying manpower to Zone 3 (Ramgarh and Bokaro) and Zone 6 (Palamu, Garhwa and Latehar).”

3. During pendency of the writ petition, the petitioner filed I.A. No.5850 of 2025 confining its claim only to the extent of challenge to the blacklisting order passed by the respondents. It shall be apposite to extract the order in its entirety, which reads as under:-

4. The minimal facts, as necessary for the adjudication of the instant case are that the Jharkhand State Beverage Corporation Limited (“JSBCL”) had floated an electronic tender for empanelment of a placement agency in terms of the Jharkhand Excise (Operation of Retail Excise Shops by the Jharkhand State Beverage Corporation Limited) Rules, 2022 (hereinafter to be referred as the “Retail Rules, 2022”).

5. In the said e-tender process, the petitioner participated and was declared successful for two zones, being zone No. 3, comprising of districts of Ramgarh and Bokaro and zone No. 6, comprising of districts of Palamau, Garhwa and Latehar.

6. On being declared successful, a Letter of Intent was issued by the JSBCL vide letter No. 1731 dated 18.11.2022 and pursuant thereto, the petitioner deposited the requisite amount of bank guarantee as was mentioned in the letter dated 18.11.2022.

7. Thereafter, two agreements were executed by the JSBCL in favour of the petitioner for the above two zones. So far as zone No. 6 is concerned an agreement was executed on 24.02.2023 and whereas for zone No. 3, an agreement was executed on 31.07.2023.

8. After the petitioner had taken over the above two zones, the excise officers of the district had handed over a list of the employees, who were already employed by the former placement agency to continue the same men.

9. It is averred by the petitioner that it started performing the duties and discharging its obligations under the agreement without any complaint whatsoever, even though the condition related to Minimum Guaranteed Revenue caused an impediment in discharge of its function effectively. However, the Department of Excise purportedly on the basis of certain Newspaper items published on 18.09.2023 alleging financial irregularities in the District of Garhwa constituted a team of 5 members vide a memo No. 2255 dated 20.09.2023 headed by the Assistant Deputy Commissioner, Excise (Headquarter) as also the Excise Superintendent, EIB (Headquarter), Sub inspector, Excise, Lohardaga, representative of the Departmental Internal Auditors and Upper Division Clerk as its members, which carried out a surprise inspection of 54 retail exci