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The Delhi High Court has sought the stand of the Centre and the National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) in a plea against a “limited e-tender” and corrigendum inviting online bids from “firms currently empanelled” for the supply of items for the ‘Jaadui Pitara’, a kit developed by the council.
Jaadui Pitara is a play-based learning module for children in the 3-8 age group and comes in the form of a container filled with toys, games, puzzles, puppets, posters, flash cards, and story cards, among others, The Indian Express had reported.
A single-judge bench of Justice Amit Mahajan on June 22 issued notice to the Centre and NCERT and listed the matter on July 6. The plea has been moved by petitioner Samit Khanna, who is the proprietor of M/s Universal Sales, which deals in the manufacturing and distribution of toys since 2013 and is registered under the Ministry of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises.
The plea states that the petitioner is well established, certified with the Bureau of Indian Standards and has been awarded many tenders of toys. The plea contends that the petitioner meets all the other criteria set down by NCERT other than the criteria of being an empanelled firm and due to this, he is not able to submit its ‘techno-commercial bid’.
The plea filed by advocate Juhi Arora states that NCERT, while issuing the corrigendum on June 15, has “set the one sided and bias criteria in Sr. No. 1 Eligibility conditions and other requirements of the General Information for Bidders i.e. ‘NCERT invites online bids from firms currently empanelled with NCERT, for the supply of items of New Kit (Jaadui Pitara) developed by NCERT’”.
The plea further states that this new kit majorly has toy items, which come under the toy industry, while the current 23 empanelled companies for which the tender is restricted are “manufacturers of science and mathematical kits”.
The plea asserts that the issuance of a limited tender by NCERT is “not only arbitrary but in violation of Article 14 of Constitution of India but also affects the petitioner’s fundamental right to carry on business under Article 19(1)(g) of the Constitution of India”.
The plea seeks a direction that the tender issued by NCERT on June 6 is deemed void and set aside. It further seeks a direction that the corrigendum issued on June 15 setting the “one sided and biased criteria” is deemed void and illegal and set aside. It also seeks a direction to NCERT to allow the petitioner to participate in the tender and further direction to NCERT to not proceed with the tender without the active participation of the petitioner.
“The one-sided criteria set by respondent no. 2 is completely against the fundamental principles of transparency, fairness, competition, economy, efficiency and accountability,” the plea states.
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