Hon'ble Judges/Coram:
N. Santosh Hegde and S.N. Phukan

JUDGMENT

N. Santosh Hegde, J.

1. These appeals are preferred against the judgment and order dated 15.10.1993 passed by the High Court of Judicature at Allahabad in Civil Miscellaneous Writ Petition No. 12355/93 filed by the first respondent herein. The brief facts necessary for disposal of the appeals are as follow :

The respondent - M/s. Dinesh Engineering Corporation - (hereinafter referred to as 'the writ petitioner') claims to manufacture certain spare parts of GE governors used by the Indian Railways to control the speed in diesel locomotives. It is stated that originally the diesel governor was manufactured only by M/s. General Electric Company of the United States of America ('GE' for short) and till the year 1974, the same was being imported as also its spare parts. Thereafter, while stopping the import of governors in regard to the spare parts required for replacement in the governors manufactured by General Electric Co., the Railways were approaching the local manufacturers.

2. On 9.12.1991, it is stated that a tender was floated by the Controller of Stores, Diesel Locomotive Works, Varanasi, for supply of certain items of spare parts of use in GE governors. It is stated that only the writ petitioner responded to the tender but its tender was not considered nor was it rejected till 23.10.1992 on which date the writ petitioner received a letter from the Director, Mechanical Engineering (Tr.), Diesel Locomotive Works, Varanasi, wherein it was informed that the Railway Board had reviewed the policy of purchase of GE-EDC governor spares in the context of sophistication, complexity and high degree of precision associated with governors. Consequently, its tender was not acceptable to the Railways.

3. Challenging this decision of the Railways both in regard to the policy purported to have been adopted by the Board as also the rejection of its tender, the writ petitioner moved the High Court seeking a writ in the nature of mandamus commanding the respondents in the writ petition to finalise the offer of the writ petitioner regarding the tender and also for issuance of a writ of certiorari quashing the letter dated 23.10.1992 written by the Director, Mechanical Engineering (Tr.) in regard to purchase of spare parts.

4. The High Court in the impugned order came to the conclusion that on the basis of the material placed before it that the writ petitioner was manufacturing spare parts for GE governors and was supplying the same to various Divisions of the Indian Railways who had found it to be satisfactory and, in regard to which, as a matter of fact, some of these Divisions had also issued certificates of efficiency and appreciation. It also accepted the plea of the writ petitioner that the spare parts supplied by it were certified to have given satisfactory service by various Divisions of the Railways like the Central Railways etc., and held that the writ petitioner was the sole competitor to M/s. Engineering Devices & Controls (EDC) f........