BISWANATH SOMADDER, J. - (1.) This appeal has been preferred against a judgment and order dated 14th November, 2011, passed by the learned Single Judge in WP 17296 (W) of 2009 (Smt. Jayanti Paul and Ors. v. Kolkata Metropolitan Development Authority and Ors.). It appears that the writ petitioners had approached the learned Single Judge questioning a decision of the Kolkata Metropolitan Development Authority (hereinafter referred to as the KMDA) dated 15th September, 2009. By the said decision, the offer of allotment of plot no. C-15, HIG made by the KMDA was cancelled and possession of land delivered stood withdrawn. The lease deed so executed also stood cancelled.
(2.) It appears that the learned Single Judge, without even considering the merits of the case on its factual background or testing the action on the touchstone of reasonableness as opposed to arbitrariness, merely referred to and relied upon his own decision rendered in Haldiram Ltd. v. State of West Bengal and Ors. reported in (2009) 1 Cal LT 158 (HC) in order to hold that the decision of the KMDA to cancel the lease was "in exercise of its pure private law contractual right flowing solely from the terms and conditions of the lease". The learned Single Judge further held that an authority that is a State within the meaning of Article 12 is under an obligation to exercise powers conferred on it in consonance with the provisions of Article 14, meaning thereby that the action must be fair, reasonable and free from arbitrariness. But, when an authority exercises a right conferred on it by a private contract, the said authority is not under any corresponding obligation to exercise the right in consonance with the principles of fairness, reasonableness and non-arbitrariness in State action as enshrined in Article 14, for there is a clear distinction between a public law power and a private law right.
(3.) A pure and simple question of law, therefore, arises in the instant case and that is, whether applicability of Article 14 of the Constitution of India can be wholly excluded - based on our understanding of the Constitutional scheme - in respect of private law contracts entered into by and between an authority, being a State within the meaning of Article 12 of the Constitution of India and a private person, even if there is arbitrariness present in an action which emanates from a right under a contract ordinarily governed by private law.;