What Bombay High Court said on contractors filing PIL against tender conditions

Permitting contractors to file public interest litigations (PIL) challenging tender conditions will amount to polluting the stream of PILs and is a sheer abuse of process of court, the Bombay High Court said on Tuesday [Nilesh Kamble v. MMRDA & Ors.]. .A division bench of Chief Justice Devendra Kumar Upadhyaya and Justice Arif Doctor dismissed a PIL challenging conditions of a tender issued by a government body.The Court also imposed costs of ₹50,000 on the petitioner to be paid to KEM Hospital in Mumbai.“Permitting a contractor to file a PIL petition challenging the conditions of a tender, in our opinion, is nothing but a sheer abuse of process of Court and an effort to pollute the purity of the stream of public interest litigation. The petitioner has himself stated in the petition that he is engaged in the similar business as mentioned in the subject tender. Accordingly, this petition cannot be permitted to be entertained as a PIL petition,” the court observed..The petitioner, Nilesh Kamble, approached the High Court against tjhe eligibility conditions prescribed by a tender issued by the Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA).Kamble contended that on account of the conditions, some of the contractors were unable to participate in the tender process..The Court noted that Kamble was on the one hand espousing a public cause and on the other hand, was engaged in similar business as was mentioned in the tender. For this reason, the Court concluded that the present PIL seemed to have been instituted for pursuing personal, extraneous cause.“Such statement of the petitioner (that he does not have any personal interest in the matter) if seen juxtaposed with the particulars of the petitioner, as disclosed by him in this PIL petition itself, is absolutely strange and simply dis-entitles the petitioner to seek any relief in this PIL petition,” the Court said while dismissing the petition with costs..Advocate Indira Labde appeared for the petitioner.Advocates Akshay Shinde appeared for MMRDA. Additional government pleaders Prachi Tatake and Nazia Sheikh appeared for State. [Read order]