LAHORE, Oct 5: Justice Umar Ata Bandial of the Lahore High Court has held that the auction of ‘attractive’ registration numbers for cars is being done without a policy, which gives the authorities a free hand to accept or reject the offers of bidders at whims and even violate the advertised terms and conditions.

The court also observed that the process lacked consistency and was not based on a settled criteria, which invariably made the aggrieved approach the superior courts.

The court made the observations in the judgment announced in a writ petition through which Mubashir Iqbal had stated that the Punjab directorate of the excise and taxation had rejected his offer of Rs150,000 for the allotment of registration number LZO-1, though he was the highest bidder in auction held on April 14.

No cogent reason was given for rejection of his bid, except that the administrative department had not approved the offer, he said.

The reply submitted by the department said the competent authority rejected the offer without giving the reason because he was empowered to do so in one of the conditions for the auction process.