Was not given time to explain before contract was cancelled: STUP
STUP Consultants Private Limited moved the High Court on Monday, challenging the action of Kannur International Airport Limited (KIAL) in cancelling the consultancy agreement signed with it for the airport’s construction.
In its petition, STUP pointed out that it had not been given sufficient opportunity to explain its stand before the agreement was cancelled. It was only given two days, including a Sunday, to reply to a show cause notice issued by KIAL. Had it been given sufficient time, it would have explained the blacklisting of the company by the Punjab government with the support of documents.
It argued that the principles of natural justice had been violated by KIAL. It pointed out that though the Punjab government had blacklisted the company in 2007, government agencies in Punjab continued to award it various projects. This implied that the blacklisting of the company had been lifted or cancelled. In fact, it still enjoyed the status of an empanelled consultant.
According to the petitioner, debarring the company from taking up any project was bad in law.
The agreement had been scrapped after KIAL found that the company obtained the contract after suppressing the fact relating to eligibility norms. The eligibility criteria prescribed for the selection of the contractor was that the bidders should not have been blacklisted, or failed to perform any of its previous contracts.
The petitioner said that the action of KIAL was illegal and sought quashing of the cancellation order. It also sought to restrain KIAL from awarding the contract to any other company.
· Says blacklisting by Punjab government can be explained
· ‘Still gets projects from government agencies in Punjab’
No comments:
Post a Comment