The cancellation of a Letter of Acceptance without prior notice or opportunity for the petitioner to respond violates principles of natural justice.

ORDER :

(SUREPALLI NANDA, J.)

Heard Sri S.S.Satyanarayana Prasad, learned senior designated counsel representing the learned counsel Sri S.N.Chidambara Sastry, appearing on behalf of the petitioner and Sri Dominic Fernandez, learned Standing Counsel for the Indian Oil Corporation Limited, appearing on behalf of the respondent Nos.1 and 2.

2. The petitioner approached the Court seeking prayer as under:

“…. issue a writ of Mandamus or any other appropriate writ order or direction declaring the e-mail communications dated 21.02.2025 at 17.00 hours and the e-mail communication dated 01.04.2025 at 19.25 hours (from Mr.A.Karthik and Mr.Raju AM, purporting to act on behalf of the 1^st and 2^nd respondents) Cancelling the LOA dated 20.02.2025 issued to the petitioner on a wrong premise that by 21.03.2025, 30 days have lapsed from the date of LOA making it liable for cancellation as arbitrary illegal unjust and as in violation of the principles of natural justice and issue a consequential directions directing the 1^st and 2^nd Respondents to allow the petitioner to complete the contract work/s as per the LOA dated 20.02.2025 issued to it and to permit the petitioner to carry out and execute the work order dated 12.03.2025 and other work orders issued to it and pass such other order or orders as this Hon'ble Court may deem fit and proper in the circumstance of the case.”

PERUSED THE RECORD:-

3. The case of the petitioner in brief as per the averments made by the petitioner in the affidavit filed by the petitioner in support of the present writ petition is as under:

The 1^st respondent had issued a Tender Notice bearing NO.SRCC/RIM/PT/157/TAPSO/2024-25 for bunker supply of black oil and white oil through tanker barges to the coastal/foreign run sea going vessels berthed at inner harbor, outer harbor, and outer anchorage of vizag port. In response to the said Tender Notice petitioner along with others submitted their tenders. The 1^st respondent accepted the tender submitted by the petitioner and the 1^st respondent by a letter dated 20.02.2025 issued the Letter of Acceptance. As per the said LoA the period of contract is for three years from the date of the LoA and it is extendable for a further period of 9 months on mutual consent in line with GeM conditions. The 1^st respondent issued to the petitioner the work order bearing No.70881429 dated 12.03.2025 for transporting white oil and black oil to coastal and foreign run vessels calling at Vizag Port through tanker barges (small category barges). As per the normal practice and procedure in vogue the petitioner has to execute the work within a period of 30 days from the date of work order. The work order did not stipulate any time limit for execution. The petitioner received an e-mail from one of the officials of the 1^st respondent in February 2025 stating that the petitioner should keep its barge ready on or before 21.03.2025 failing which the LoA is liable for cancellation.

It is further the specific case of the petitioner that the petitioner is ready to implement and execute the work order given by the 1^st respondent once clearance is received from Respondent Nos. 3 and 5. The petitioner infact made a request for the clearance of its barge from Kakinada Port initially on 03.03.2025, as the Respondents 3 and 5 did not take any action, the petitioner resubmitted its application dated 22.03.2025 and even approached the Andhra Pradesh High Court by filing W.P.No.8234 of 2025 seeking prayer as under:

“…to issue a writ of mandamus or any other appropriate writ order or direction declaring the action of the Respondents 2 and 3 in not issuing to the petitioner the clearance/no objection for the movement of the petitioner’s barge CAPSTAR1 as per its request/application made through Official Portal dt. 03.03.2025 resubmitted on 22.03.2025 as arbitrary illegal and as contrary to the relevant Rules Regulations and the established practice in processing such requests and issue a consequential direction directing t