JUDGMENT :

1. The captioned 41 main writ petitions pertain to tenders floated by Tamil Nadu State Marketing Corporation Limited [TASMAC] pertaining to bars attached to various TASMAC retail outlets and more particularly for collection of empty bottles and for sale of eatables.

2. This Court is informed that the aforementioned tenders qua bars attached to TASMAC retail outlets have been published in all the 38 revenue districts in the State.

3. Inter alia the main issue in the captioned matters is No Objection Certificates from owners of the bar premises attached to TASMAC retail shops and award of contract / issue of license to persons who allegedly do not possess such No Objection Certificates. This Court refrains itself from expressing any opinion or view on this owing to the obtaining position which is set out infra.

4. This Court is informed that several writ petitions [atleast 22 writ petitions] have been moved by different individual bidders before the Principal Seat and the same is being heard out by a Hon'ble Single Judge in the Principal Seat.

5. Proceedings made by Hon'ble Single Judge in the Principal Seat in aforementioned 22 writ petitions in the listing on 22.12.2021 as placed before this Court is as follows:

'Mr.P.Arumugarajan, learned Standing Counsel and Mr.K.Sathish Kumar, learned Standing Counsel takes notice on behalf of the respondents.

2. Heard the learned Senior Counsel and the learned counsel for the Petitioners and the learned Standing Counsels for the respondents.

3. It is the complaint of the petitioners that they have been given license for a period of two years starting from 30.09.2019 to 30.09.2021 to collect the bottles and sell eatables in the TASMAC Shops/bars located in 38 districts.

4. The uniform case of the petitioners are that the petitioners have a private arrangement with the owners of the property where the TASMAC bars attached to the shop are being run and that the respondents have now floated a fresh tender on 14.12.2021 and on 15.12.2021 for out sourcing the activity of collecting bottles and vending food items in the bar premises by ousting the petitioner.

5. It is the case of the petitioners that almost fifteen months and fifteen days of the entire license period of the petitioners and members of the petitioners Association remained unutilized due to lock down and the restrictions imposed due to the outbreak Covid-19 pandemic.

6. It is submitted that though the petitioners were not required to pay the license fee during the lock down period when the TASMAC Shops/bars remained closed, nevertheless, the petitioners were paying the rents to the owners of the bar premises which were independently taken on lease by them from the respective owners of the properties.

7. It is further submitted that these petitioners had also maintained the staff even during the time when the TASMAC Shops/bars had to be closed due to lock down imposed during the first and second wave of Covid-19 pandemic.

8. The learned Senior Counsel for the petitioners submits that the tender was advertised on 14.12.2021 and on 15.12.2021 for the proposed tender, the tender advertisement states that the forms can be downloaded from the website of the respondents TASMAC Limited. It is submitted that these forms are not available on the website of the respondents TASMAC Limited for being downloaded and that the petitioners were driven to approach the respective District Managers of the respondents TASMAC Limited, who are not giving Forms to the petitioners and the members of the petitioners Association and an attempt is being made to oust the petitioners and the members of the petitioners Association from participating in the tender process.

9. The challenge to the proposed tender is also for the alleged glaring violation of the Provisions of the Tamil Nadu Transparency in Tenders Act, 1998 and their Rules made there under.

10. It is submitted that the minimum of fifteen days notice is required as per the Rules. It is further submitted t