Public authorities cannot arbitrarily cancel the highest bid in a valid public auction without notice, especially in the absence of fraud or illegality. An expectation of higher revenue in a future re-auction is not a valid, rational ground for discarding a bid that exceeds the reserve price.

ORDER :

GANESH RAM MEENA, J.

1. By filing instant writ petition under Article 226 of the Constitution of India, the petitioner has sought following relief:-

“a) By an appropriate writ, order or direction, the impugned order dated 13.12.2022 be quashed and set aside; and

b) By an appropriate writ, order or direction, the Respondents be directed to allot Plot No. 26 at V.T. Road, Mansarovar, Jaipur in favour of the Petitioner in pursuance of the Auction held between 21st-23rd September 2022.

Or in the alternative

c) By an appropriate writ, order or direction, the Respondents be directed to re-auction the Schedule Property within a limited time period and grant right to first refusal to the Petitioner wherein if the Petitioner matches the highest bid price of the freshly conducted Auction, the Schedule Property must be allotted to Petitioner as per applicable rules; and

d) By an appropriate writ, order or direction, the Respondents be directed to grant 12% interest for the period from 24th of September to 20th of December, on the amount totaling to Rupees 4,55,12,115 which deposited by the Petitioner in lieu of the payment schedule applicable to the Auction.

e) Pass any other appropriate writ, order or direction in favour of the Petitioner as the Hon'ble Court deems just and reasonable in the facts and the circumstances of the case.”

2. The facts of the case in brief are that an advertisement was issued by the respondent- Rajasthan Housing Board for the auction of a commercial plot/ marriage garden situated at Plot No.26, V.T. Road, Mansarovar. The total area of the land was 3003.10 sq. meter and the minimum bid was Rs.97,000/- per sq. meter. The petitioner participated in the auction conducted between 21^st September to 23^rd September 2022 and he was declared as the highest bidder with the winning bid of Rs.1,01,000 per sq. meter. On 20^th September 2022 i.e. before start of the auction, the petitioner deposited 2% of the minimum bid value (Rs.58,28,000/-) on 24^th September 2022, as per the applicable rules. The petitioner paid 15% of the total bid amount i.e. Rs.4,55,12,115/- within twenty hours of his being declared as the highest bidder. The respondents deposited back Rs.4,55,12,115/- in the petitioner’s account on 20^th December 2022 i.e. after a period of around three months. The petitioner sent e-mails on 23^rd December 2022 on the official web site of the Rajasthan Housing Board seeking explanation with regard to returning of the amount back. E- mail servers reverted to the petitioner’s mail stating that ‘delivery was incomplete’. The petitioner sent letters to the relevant authorities on 26^th December 2022 for seeking reasons behind the unexplained transactions, which were not answered.

It has also been pleaded by the petitioner in the petition that the petitioner was served with the ante dated office order dated 13.12.2022 on 27^th January 2023 through which it was informed that his bid was cancelled for being ‘non-competitive’. Thereafter, the petitioner filed an application under the Right to Information Act, 2005 (for short ‘the Act of 2005’) seeking documents and information regarding the departmental proceedings of the land put in auction, which was allowed on 14.02.2023 and the required documents were supplied / furnished to him. It has also been ple