- (1.) By way of this petition under Article 226 of the Constitution of India, the petitioners have prayed for following reliefs: "A. The Hon'ble Court be pleased to issue an appropriate writ, order or direction setting aside the impugned communication dated 30.06.2020 and consequential inquiry proceedings thereof; IN THE ALTERNATIVE B. The Hon'ble Court be pleased to issue an appropriate writ, order or direction prohibiting further process in the inquiry proceedings as provided under the communication impugned dated 30.06.2020 without following due process and providing the documents sought for by the petitioners; C. The Hon'ble Court be pleased to issue an appropriate writ, order or direction quashing and setting aside inquiry proceedings initiated consequential to show cause notices dated 12.01.2016 and all subsequent proceedings thereof as being malafide; IN THE ALTERNATIVE D. The Hon'ble Court be pleased to issue an appropriate writ, order or direction transferring the investigation to any officer of the Respondent no.1 Authority equivalent to or above the post of the Respondent No.2; E. Pending the hearing and final disposal of the petition, the Hon'ble Court be pleased to stay further process and finalization in the inquiry proceedings against the petitioners; F. Pending the hearing and final disposal of the petition, the Hon'ble Court be pleased to stay further process in the inquiry proceedings pursuant to the communication impugned dated 30.06.2020; G. Ex-parte ad-interim relief in terms of para 27(E) and 27(F) above be granted:"
(2.) At the outset, it deserves to be noted that the similar prayers were prayed for in this petition have been dealt with by the Hon'ble Division Bench of this Court in earlier proceedings, which are narrated and described hereinafter. What is predominantly impugned in this petition is a communication dated 30.06.2020 and supply of documents.
(3.) The chronology of dates and events which can be culled out from the petition are as under: Date Particulars 15.2.2013 The respondent no.2 herein floated a tender for Printing Jeevan Shikshan Magazine and other required books vide advertisement dated 15.2.2013. The petitioner was declared lowest successful bidder for the same. 22.4.2013 The financial bids were opened on 22.4.2013. 24.4.2013 The respondent no.2 vide letter dated 24.4.2013 sought clarification from the petitioner no.1 as to whether the bid given for double side printing with paper was per side or in total. 29.4.2013 The aforesaid was responded by petitioner no.1 on 29.4.2013. 15.5.2013 The work order was issued by the respondent no.2 in favour of the petitioner no.1 on 15.5.2013. 2014 One Shri Ranjan Amin raised inquiries / information of the bid under the Right to Information Act , 2005 and also sought other financial details thereof. 8.1.2015 One such complained was made to 2.2.2015 Controller and Auditor General Office, Rajkot on 8.1.2015 and 2.2.2015. CAG formulated a draft audit report giving preliminary findings to the effect that a loss was caused to the Government on account of action of the respondent in quoting the price per dual side printing. 2015 Writ Petition (PIL) No. 72 of 2015 was filed by a third party, which came to be disposed of vide order dated 20.04.2015. 12.1.2016 Based upon the CAG Report, respondent no.2 issued two show cause notices upon the petitioner firm dated 12.1.2016 for recovery of Rs.6.90 crores and also for blacklisting the petitioner firm. 20.1.2016 The aforesaid show cause notices was responded by the petitioner firm vide communication dated 20.1.2016. 8.2.2016 That again by communication dated 8.2.2016 the petitioner firm asked for requisite documents. 9.2.2016 The aforesaid communication dated 8.2.2016 was replied by the respondent no.2 vide communication dated 9.2.2016 informing the petitioner firm that on account of pendency of another PIL being Writ Petition (PIL) No.164 of 2015, no documents could be provided to the petitioner despite the issuance of show cause notice. 19.2.2016 Petitioner filed writ petition being SCA No.2683 of 2016. This Court by order dated 19.2.2016 has pleased to grant stay against any further action. 20.2.2016 Before the order could be served, by an order dated 20.2.2016 the petitioner firm was informed that petitioner firm has been blacklisted. 15.3.2016 Special Civil Application No.2683 of 2016 was heard and disposed of by an order dated 15.3.2016 and the order dated 20.2.2016 was quashed and set aside. 21.3.2016 By a communication dated 21.3.2016 detailed request for documents was made. 28.3.2016 The communication dated 21.3.2016 was responded by the respondent no.2 by providing some documents out of total demanded by the petitioner vide communication dated 28.3.2016. 11.4.2016 Detailed reply to the show cause notice came to be filed by the petitioner on 11.4.2016. That in the reply, it was pointed out that not all documents were provided and the order of the Hon'ble Court was not complied with and it was also stated that petitioner no.1 was responding based solely on those documents which were available and provided. 2.5.2016 Writ Petition (PIL) No. 164 of 2015 came to be filed by third party as a public interest, which came to be disposed of vide order dated 02.05.2016 wherein it is observed that as the State Government has initiated the proceedings for recovery of amount and blacklisting, the petitioner no.1 grievance would not survive and it is also further provided that appropriate order would be passed as expeditiously as possible in the said proceeding so initiated. 22.11.2016 The petitioner no.1 thereafter preferred one Special Civil Suit No.213 of 2016 on 22.11.2016 challenging the draft audit report of the CAG which was subsequently conditionally withdrawn on account of subsequent events of 2019. 2019 The petitioner thereafter filed Special Civil Application No.6649 of 2019. 6.5.2019 Communication of 6.5.2019 was issued by the respondent no.2 upon all the Directors including petitioner no.2 and asked for following; (I). direct the said persons to deposit Rs.6.9 crores within the period of 7 days from the receipt of notice with interest. (II). In the alternative sought to initiate criminal proceedings under the IPC against the Directors individually for cheating, breach of trust, tampering of documents and causing loss to the Government exchequer. (III). Calling upon the said Directors to show cause as to why the petitioner no.1 institution should not be blacklisted. (IV). Calling for explanation qua the same. 13.5.2019 The petitioner and its Director responded the communication dated 6.5.2019 by communication dated 13.5.2019. 20.6.2019 Thereafter, a communication dated 20.6.2019 was issued making mala fide and baseless allegations of the petitioner not signing each and every page of its reply despite being required to do so and further pointing out that no response or notice was required for filing criminal complaint, however an opportunity was being provided to the Directors of the petitioner no.1 to show their trustworthiness. 29.6.2015 The communication dated 20.6.2019 was responded to on 29.6.2015 wherein the Directors of the petitioner no.1 had individually pointed out that there was non compliance of the order of the Court dated 15.3.2016, not all documents were provided and a hearing was required to be conducted prior to any decision being caused. 22.8.2019 A further communication was issued on 22.8.2019 by the respondent no.1. 30.09.2019 Thereafter, a notice dated 30.09.2019 was issued upon the petitioner to remain present for hearing on 10.10.2019. 9.10.2019 The petitioner again approached this Hon'ble Court by way of filing Special Civil Application No.17490 of 2019 and this Court by way of order dated 9.10.2019 was pleased to issue notice to the respondents and in the meantime direct that no coercive action be undertaken against the petitioner. 12.2.2010 Special Civil Application No.17490 of 2019 was disposed of after considering the reply filed by the respondent no.2 vide order dated 12.2.2020. 18.2.2020 The petitioner filed representation on 18.2.2020 to the respondent no.2. 2.3.2020 The respondent no.2 responded to the representation dated 18.2.2020 on 2.3.2020. 24.3.2020 An FIR came to be lodged with the Gandhinagar Police Station on 24.3.2020 for the offences punishable under Sections 406 , 409 , 420 , 467 , 468 and 120 B of the IPC. 30.3.2020 The petitioner no.1 has filed application for anticipatory bail under Section 438 of the Code of Criminal Procedure being Criminal Misc. Application No.5882 of 2020 and same was granted for some period vide order dated 30.3.2020. . As the period was completed, another Criminal Misc. Application No.6082 of 2020 is filed, which is pending and petitioner no.2 has been granted interim protection since in FIR reference is made to para 17 of the order of this Court in SCA No.17490 of 2019, MCA No.1 of 2020 was filed for clarification of the order dated 12.2.2020. 30.6.2020 Further communication was issued by the respondent no.2 dated 30.6.2020 calling upon the petitioners to attend the intended hearing to be concluded by him, present petition is filed.;