Mumbai: In a significant ruling on Thursday, the Bombay High Court said if a contractor fails to do ‘satisfactory’ repair or construction work, they must be penalised. The HC said the civic body must also consider blacklisting such a contractor.
A bench of Justices Satyaranjan Dharmadhikari and Burgess Colabawalla was dealing with a plea filed by a contractor, challenging the decision of the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) to assign the repairs of bridges in Dadar to a ‘blacklisted’ contractor. The petitioner contractor claimed, his counterpart, a blacklisted one was not at all ‘eligible’ for the award, as it was not registered with the BMC, which is mandatory as per the municipal rules.
“Eventually such registered contractors, if found to have not completed the contract work satisfactorily or have abandoned it, should be then properly penalised, including blacklisting,” said Justice Dharmadhikari. “A debarring or blacklisting by the municipal corporation would definitely have a bearing on the contractor’s standing and reputation in the market. He may then be excluded from participation by others as well,” Justice Dharmadhikari added.
The petitioner contractor had claimed that the e-tender floated by the municipal body was arbitrary and perverse, as it made compulsory for a contractor to register themselves with the BMC within three months of getting the contract. “All the contractors of repute and multidisciplinary engineering organisations, if not registered, would have to satisfy is a condition that after awarding the contract in their favour, within three months, they must seek registration with the BMC.
To our mind, this stipulation, as understood by the BMC, sub-serves the larger public interest,” the judges held. Soon after the court pronounced its verdict, the petitioner contractor sought a stay so the ‘blacklisted’ contractor, does not get the task of carrying out repairs on the bridges.
“It is submitted before us that the condition of bridges is deteriorating and if the repairs, even of minor nature, are not carried out urgently, the bridges would deteriorate further,” Justice Dharmadhikari noted. ,“We view larger public interest demands we should not stay this order,” the judge said, dismissing the plea.
