KARACHI: The Sindh High Court on Wednesday restrained till Oct 14 the provincial education and procurement authorities from cancelling the contracts of furniture for government schools across the province.

A bench headed by Justice Syed Hasan Azhar Rizvi also issued notices to the school education and literacy department secretary, chairman of the central procurement committee and managing director of the Sindh Public Procurement Regulatory Authority (SPPRA) as well as the advocate general, Sindh, on a suit filed by four private firm.

The firms moved the SHC stating that all the plaintiffs were awarded tenders amounting over Rs2.8 billion in June as their bids were lowest and thereafter they entered into contracts / agreements with defendants last month for procurement of school desks for Hyderabad, Sukkur, Larkana, Mirpurkhas and Shaheed Benazirabad regions.

The lawyers for the plaintiffs argued that the school education and literacy department through a notification issued on Sept 17, constituted a committee to review the process of procurement.

Plaintiffs say they got the tender after completing all formalities

Referring to a news item published on Sept 26 regarding the recommendation of the committee to cancel the controversial contracts, they further argued that the education department had issued a letter of acceptance/award to the plaintiffs on June 29 for supply of duel desks for schools and the value per unit including GST, withholding tax and transportation charges were mentioned in it.

The counsel claimed that one of the plaintiffs had already purchased sheesham wood while other plaintiffs had also completed 50 per cent order and the same was ready for delivery and remaining 50pc was under production within the targeted schedule as the letter in question had set the timeline of four months from the date of signing contracts.

They further contended that the review committee was constituted when the central procurement committee had already done the procedure for the year 2020-21 and 2021-22 for submission of its findings regarding cost and quality of furniture.

The lawyers maintained that the plaintiff had participated in the subject contracts strictly in accordance with the Sindh Public Procurement Act, 2009 and Sindh Public Procurement Rules.

They argued that the proposed action on the part of defendants as reported was patently mala fide and unwarranted as the plaintiffs were not given any opportunity of being heard before taking any proposed coercive action in respect of the contracts, which was the violation of Article 10-A of the Constitution and against the principle of natural justice.

“Issue notice to the defendants and Advocate General, Sindh for 14.10.2021. Till the next date of hearing, defendants are restrained from cancellation/termination of the subject contracts/agreements dated 16.08.2021, 10.08.2021 and 11.0802021 subject matter of this suit executed in between the plaintiffs and defendants. The defendants are further restrained from taking any adverse/coercive action contrary to the terms and conditions of the five (5) contracts entered in between the plaintiffs and defendants subject matter of this suit, which are enclosed with the memo of plaint,” the court order said.

Published in Dawn, September 30th, 2021