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Chennai: A farmer moved the Madras high court seeking contempt of court action against the state agriculture department for proceeding with a tender for the procurement of bio-stimulant (bio-fertilizer) in violation of a court order. Despite the undertaking given before the first bench of the court not to finalize a tender for supply of organic liquid input bio-stimulant, for which no testing methodology was specified by the central govt in the Fertilizer Control Order, the department issued a work order for 21 crore, P Jothibasu alleged. When the plea came up for hearing, the department submitted that the tender, which was the subject matter of the petition, was scrapped and a fresh tender was issued; therefore, there cannot be contempt.
Opposing this, counsel for the petitioner, M Purushothaman, submitted that the tender number, product, and quantity is the same. Therefore, to circumvent the undertaking given to this court, mischief has been played. You Can Also Check: Chennai AQI | Weather in Chennai | Bank Holidays in Chennai | Public Holidays in Chennai The first bench of Chief Justice K R Shriram and Justice Mohammed Shaffiq said the allegation of the petitioner cannot be stated to be unjustified.
The court admitted the contempt petition and directed the department to respond by June 12. According to the petitioner, the tender was floated to procure a product simply described as organic input (liquid organic fertilizer bio-stimulant). The tender is called for procurement without product description as required under the order, its tolerance limit, and methodology of testing, he added.
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