On Selvel petition, HC stays Mohali MC’s tender process

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, June 25

Four months after the Mohali Municipal Corporation floated tenders for displaying advertisements, the Punjab and Haryana High Court has stayed the further process. The direction came on a petition filed by Selvel Media Services Pvt Ltd against the state of Punjab and other respondents.

Appearing before the Division Bench of Chief Justice Krishna Murari and Justice Arun Palli on the petitioner’s behalf, senior advocate Chetan Mittal and Mohinder S Nain submitted that they had challenged the communication /order dated May 29 disqualifying them after claiming that the company was found to be “defaulter of a government”.

Mittal argued that a complaint was made that the petitioner was a “defaulter of certain dues of the Municipal Corporation, Chandigarh”, following which a clarification was sought from the local body. The Chandigarh MC, vide a letter dated March 25, claimed outstanding amount of Rs 21,06,82,691 up to March 31, 2018.

Mittal said the dispute regarding the outstanding advertisement fee/tax was challenged by the petitioner by filing a writ petition, which was disposed of by appointing an independent arbitrator to settle the dispute between the parties. Unless there was an adjudication regarding default, no one could be declared a defaulter, Mittal submitted.

Relying upon a Supreme Court pronouncement, he submitted that till the matter was pending in arbitration, the petitioner could not be said to be an actual defaulter, or even an alleged defaulter. As such,  his bid had wrongly been disqualified.