QUESTION MARK RAISED OVER MODI GOVT.’S E-AUCTION POLICY HUDA IS PUT ON NOTICE FOR IRREGULARITIES IN AUCTION OF COMMERCIAL SITES

CHANDIGARH Modi Govt’s pet E-Auction step; which was perceived as silent revolution in the way e-governance, has been put in dock before the Chandigarh High Court. After landslide victory the Modi Government had initiated the step "promoting e-auction" for the procurement of goods. The move was meant to calm the nerves of industry as well as government officials. While the former needed some assurance on transparency in government contracts after a slew of scams hit the headlines, the latter had become averse to taking decisions due to an array of charges against their colleagues in the recent past.

          A Petitioner Winsoft Technoloyg, an Educational Trust, through his lawyer Pardeep Rapria has challenged the cancellation of his successful E-Bid for a property of more than 10 Crore rupees before Chandigarh High Court.

          While taking lead from the Modi’s initiative of E-Auction of all tenders, the Khattar Govt. in Haryana had also made announcement that all tenders and auctions would be through E-auction. As per the recent guidelines the HUDA had advertised the advertised E-Auction of 12 Commercial Sites at Faridabad, in collaboration with its official partner technical partner ‘Nextenders (India) Pvt Ltd.

In response to advertisement, an Educational Trust participated in the e-auction process and declared higher bidder; @ Rs 10,83, 87,500/-  (Ten Crore Eighty Three Lakhs Eighty Seven Thousand Five Hundred) against the reserved price the reserve price of Rs. 7,09,87500/- for a commercial site. However, after completing entire process of auction and deposit of more than 10 crore rupees, the Administrator, HUDA, Faridabad cancelled the auction by passing one line order: “E-Auction has been cancelled as per the Order of Administrator”

The Petitioner Trust, through its Advocate Pardeep Rapria has challenged the decision of HUDA before High Court by alleging that ‘extraneous considerations’, ‘favouritism’ ‘corrupt practices’ have played role in cancelling the entire auction process of commercial sites of HUDA. Petitioner’s counsel Mr. Rapria apprised the division bench headed by Chief Justice that the E-auction or e-tendering moves the process of bidding for government contracts completely online, removing most manual procedures and, therefore, creates an accountability trail, but despite all this Administrator, HUDA has cancelled the auction for reason best know to him.

After hearing the arguments of Mr. Rapria the Division Bench headed by Chief Justice, Punjab & Har. High Court issued notice to the HUDA  and Nextenders (India) Pvt Ltd., with direction to file reply before 06.01.2016 and further ordered that the future auction will be subject to the decision of pending petition.