Pooja Prakashan and Others Vs State of Gujarat and Others

M.S. Shah, J.@mdashLearned Advocate General tenders copy of the Government Resolution dated 27.12.2007 which is taken on record.

2. What is challenged in this petition under Article 226 of the Constitution is the Government decisions to purchase certain publications pertaining to the Gujarat Panchayats Act, the schemes thereunder and other literature relevant for Panchayat administration, from respondent No. 3 which is one of the publishers in whose favour the State Government has placed orders for purchasing certain books. The publishers from whom the State Government has decided to purchase the publications and the value of the orders under their favour in three different Government Resolutions are summarized in a Chart which would read as under:

3. In the memo of the petition, the petitioners have mainly contended that though the State Government had requisitioned as many as 1,14,126 books valued at Rs. 1.72 crores and though as many as 21 publishers had submitted their offers, the petitioners and 19 other publishers got orders for a very small quantity of books as compared to the orders placed with respondent No. 3. In fact the averment made in the petition is that only 5% of the total orders are distributed amongst 20 publishers and the remaining 95% books will be purchased from respondent No. 3. A perusal of the above Chart prepared on the basis of the material placed by respondent Nos. 1 and 2 on the record of this petition would clearly indicate that the allegation is not only incorrect but misleading because the Government has placed substantial orders with another publisher called Navsarjan Publication in whose favour orders for books worth Rs. 178.48 lacs are placed which amount constitutes about 60.66% of the total value of all the orders under the three Government Resolutions dated 28.03.2007, 10.10.2007 and 27.12.2007. The petitioners, three in number, have not chosen to challenge any of the orders placed in favour of Navsarjan Publication who has bagged 60.66% of the total orders. As against that, the orders in favour of respondent No. 3 are for total books valued at Rs. 74.50 lacs which constitutes about 25.32%. It is also clear from the above Chart that the substantial order placed with respondent No. 3 is in respect of the publications for which advertisement was issued on 07.08.2007 and the order was placed under Government Resolution dated 27.12.2007.

4. Before dealing with that part of the grievance, we may first refer to the procedure followed by the authorities for placing the orders under challenge. On 01.12.2005, the State Government in its Panchayats Rural Housing and Rural Development Department appointed a Committee to make recommendations to the Government after detailed study of the publications relating to the Panchayat administration and Panchayat organization. Thereafter, on 04.03.2006, an advertisement was published in two leading news papers inviting the tenders from the interested publishers and distributors for the supply of publications or the books indicated therein on various subjects for Gram Panchayats, Taluka Panchayats, District Panchayats and Panchayat training centres. The bidders were also supposed to provide specimen copies of the publications, their rates and the list of books / publications offered for sale. The Committee received 18 offers from various publishers/distributors. On 14.03.2006, the Committee recommended the list of 21 books on various subjects. The State Government thereafter passed Resolution dated 28.03.2007 permitting the Development Commissioner to purchase 36,670 books mentioned in the list appended to the Government Resolution from various publishers for net consideration of Rs. 58.31 lacs subject to certain terms and conditions. Orders were also placed in favour of petitioner Nos. 2 and 3 for some of their publications selected by the Committee.

5. A perusal of the Chart would indicate that while placing the orders under Government Resolutions dated 28.03.2007 and 10.10.2007 pursuant to the process commenced by advertisement dated 04.03.2006, the Government had decided to purchase books / publications worth Rs. 2.30 crores out of which orders for books / publications of the value of Rs. 178.48 lacs were placed with Navsarjan Publication. The petitioners have not challenged the orders placed in favour of the said publisher. It is also explained in the affidavit-in-reply that as regards the books / publications which were supplied to Gram Panchayats, Taluka Panchayats, District Panchayats, office of the Development Commissioner, Panchayat Department and 9 training centres, as many as 14805 copies were required to be purchased considering the fact that there are as many as 13682 Gram Panchayats, 224 Taluka Panchayats and 25 District Panchayats. It is also explained in the reply affidavit that as far as petitioner No. 3 is concerned, only 360 copies of the Panchayat manual containing Panchayat Act and Rules were purchased from petitioner No. 3, because the Panchayat manual published by respondent No. 3 is in English and, therefore, the said publication is required to be distributed only amongst Taluka Panchayats, District Panchayats, office of the Development Commissioner, Panchayat Department and 9 training centres and also to the Gujarat Panchayat Services Selection Board.

6. Thereafter, the State Government published the second advertisement dated 07.08.2007 inviting publications for Gram Mitras and the offices under the Panchayat organization. By Government Resolution dated 10.11.2006, the State Government had introduced a new scheme called "Gram Mitra" appointing educated youth to work as Gram Mitra in Government-sponsored development schemes. The State Government had appointed such 66000 Gram Mitras at village level-5 Gram Mitras for each village. The Gram Mitras are assigned duties in five different areas being agricultural, public welfare, education, health and development. The State Government issued advertisement dated 07.08.2007 in two news papers inviting offers from interested publishers and distributors for supply of publications / books indicated in the advertisement useful for Gram Mitras for daily routine work. While inviting such offers, the bidders were also asked to submit one specimen copy of the publication and the respective rates. The Committee received 21 offers from various publishers/ distributors, but no offer was received from petitioner No. 3. At the meeting held on 29.08.2007, the Committee screened the books and segregated them in two parts-one - useful to Gram Mitras and the other publications which were unrelated and not useful to Gram Mitras. The Committee further constituted a Sub-Committee for a detailed study of the said selected 30 books of 7 publishers including the publications offered by petitioner Nos. 1 and 2 and respondent No. 3.

7. On 17.09.2007, a meeting of the Sub-Committee comprising Additional Secretary to the State Government in Panchayats Department, Assistant Development Commissioner, Deputy District Development Officer, Ahmedabad District Panchayat and two other members was convened. After detailed scrutiny of the books, the Sub-Committee short-listed one compilation offered by Navsarjan Publication and a set of five books offered by respondent No. 3. A report of the Sub-Committee is on the record of these proceedings (having been produced with the affidavit-in-reply) which states that looking to the contents of the books and publications and the manner of presentation and the details given about the schemes etc., the Sub-Committee recommended the above publications i.e. one book published by Navsarjan Publication and a set of five books published by respondent No. 3 for the five different areas in which the Gram Mitras are working. The report of the Sub-Committee, which was accepted by the Committee, was forwarded to the State Government.

8. The State Government decided to purchase the set of five books offered by respondent No. 3 for the following reasons:

9.4...a decision was taken by the concerned Department of the State Government on file to the effect that there being 5 Gram Mitras, each carrying different disciplines, in each of the Village Panchayats as discussed in para 8.1 hereinabove, it would be better to go for a set of 5 separate books dealing with each of the disciplines independently of Gurjar Sahitya Prakashan (respondent No. 3), instead of one combined compilation of 5 different disciplines in one book of Navsarjan Publications. Even otherwise, the purchase of 1 set containing 5 disciplines separately, totally costing Rs. 227.50 per set after discount from Gurjar Sahitya Prakashan i.e. respondent No. 3 was economical as compared to the purchase of one combined book of Navsarjan Publications costing Rs. 276.25 per book after discount multiplied by 5 i.e. number of Gram Mitras in one Village Panchayat, (i.e. Rs. 276.25 X 5 = 1381.25) totalling to the tune of Rs. 1381.25. Accordingly, the State Government in its concerned Department passed a resolution dated 27.12.2007 permitting the Development Commissioner to purchase 27,927 sets of books (each set containing 5 books dealing with each of the aforesaid disciplines independently) from respondent No. 3 Gurjar Sahitya Prakashan for a net consideration of Rs. 63.66 lacs on certain terms and conditions. In furtherance thereto, the Development Commissioner passed an order dated 03.01.2008 in favour of the respondent No. 3 for the purchase of the aforesaid books.

9. At the hearing, we put a specific query to the learned Advocate General as to why the Government decided to purchase as many as 27927 sets of books from respondent No. 3 when the number of books purchased from Navsarjan Publication under the Government Resolutions dated 28.03.2007 and 10.10.2007 pursuant to the advertisement dated 04.03.2006 was restricted to 14805 copies of a particular publication. The learned Advocate General''s reply under instructions was that each of the Gram Mitras is to be supplied one book for his area of activity and therefore, one set of five books is required for each Gram Mitra and the other set of the same five books is to be purchased for each of the Gram Panchayats and the other concerned offices and that is why total production 27927 sets of books (each set containing five books dealing with each of the aforesaid five areas of activity) is to be purchased from respondent No. 3.

10. No serious challenge is made to any of the decisions of the Committee which selected the publications and for which orders were placed by the State Government and the Development Commissioner in favour of the other publishers except respondent No. 3.

11. In the above factual background, we do not find any merit in the grievance being made by Mr. Vin for the petitioners that the Government ought to have purchased the publications offered by petitioner Nos. 1 and 2 as well. The decision of the Sub-Committee, accepted by the Committee and the State Government and Development Commissioner was based on the contents of the books offered by various publishers / distributors including petitioner Nos. 1 and 2 and in exercise of our extra ordinary jurisdiction under Article 226 of the Constitution, we cannot sit in appeal over the merits of the said decision. So also on the question as to whether the Sub-Committee and ultimately the Government was justified in purchasing the book from respondent No. 3 and not from Navsarjan Publication is similarly the matter decided on the merits of the contents of the books and the price factor.

12. In view of the above discussion, we do not find any merit in any of the contentions raised on behalf of the petitioners.

13. The petition is, therefore, dismissed. Notice is discharged. Ad-interim relief granted earlier on 23.01.2008 as modified on 30.01.2008 is hereby vacated. The learned Advocate General is also relieved from the statement made earlier to maintain status-quo.

14. Since the petition is dismissed, Civil Application No. 1656 of 2008 filed by the State Government for clarification is also disposed of.