Judge dons auctioneer’s role at HC
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In a rare instance, Kerala high court judge Justice B.P. Ray has conducted an auction at the court room and put an end to a controversy over the allotment of a shop room at the KSRTC bus stand in Ernakulam.
Justice Ray auctioned out the shop room after hearing a petition filed against the tender proceedings initiated by KSRTC.
On Tuesday, two bidders appeared personally before the court and participated in the bidding process.
The two — K Sudhakaran of Kannur, the petitioner; and Radhakrishna Pillai of Trippunithura — engaged in a healthy contest and offered Rs 57,000 and Rs 71,000 respectively as licence fee for the shop. Justice Ray asked the bidders to raise the bid and the parties offered Rs 76,000 and 75,000 respectively.
After the bidding, the court verified the bidding process and accepted the highest bid offered by Radhakrishna Pillai, who won the bidding by a meagre margin.
Justice Ray asked KSRTC to accept the tender proceedings and allot the shop to Radhakrishna Pillai.
The bench decided to conduct the auction as it was noticed during the hearing that the tender proceedings were not upto the mark. This, after petitioner N. Sudhakaran moved the court challenging the KSRTC tender proceedings.
KSRTC had invited the tender for running business in the shop room. The petitioner submitted before the court that the tender was called on May 8, 2012.
The amount quoted by the petitioner was the highest available bid for the shop, but on June 1 a notice was issued intimating him that the tender process was cancelled. On June 5, a fresh notification was issued. The petitioner moved the court challenging this.
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