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Suresh Chandra v. Joga Singh Bisht

Civil Appeal · 2020 INSC 609Decided 26 Oct 2020
Civil Appeal Nos. 3539-3540 of 2020
Justice L. Nageswara Rao · Justice Hemant Gupta · Justice Ajay Rastogi

Background

A foreign liquor shop licence in Pithoragarh, Uttarakhand was surrendered by its original licensee and re-advertised; the appellant was the successful bidder and was granted the licence. The first respondent, who had not even participated in this re-tender, filed a writ petition alleging the state lost revenue because the appellant's bid was lower than an earlier (different) advertised figure. A Single Judge dismissed the petition for lack of locus standi, but a Division Bench of the Uttarakhand High Court stayed the licence in the appellant's favour, effectively stopping him from running the shop.

Decision Breakdown

The Supreme Court found that the Division Bench had erred: the respondent never bid in the actual re-settlement process he was complaining about, so he had no standing to challenge it, and there was in fact no revenue loss because the government was separately recovering the shortfall from the original defaulting licensee. The Court held that courts should not entertain complaints of "loss to the exchequer" from a person who never participated in the process and had misled the High Court about being willing to pay more. It set aside the High Court's stay orders, allowed the appellant to resume business immediately, and dismissed the respondent's writ petition as frivolous, imposing costs of Rs. 1,00,000 on him.

Lesson Learnt

A person who did not even participate in a government tender or licensing process generally cannot use a writ petition to challenge the result of that process on the ground of "public interest" or "revenue loss," especially when no fraud or favoritism is alleged, doing so just to disrupt a validly granted licence can attract costs.

Official source (sci.gov.in)View Judgment (PDF)

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