HYDERABAD: A division bench of the Hyderabad High Court on Tuesday directed the Andhra Pradesh government to file counter affidavit disclosing the names of the bidders who were successful in auction held for sale of red sanders in log form in December 2016, and also explain about rejection of the bids which offered higher rates.
The bench of Acting Chief Justice Ramesh Ranganathan and Justice Shameem Akther was dealing with a PIL filed by D Basava Sankar Rao, a retired forest officer, who submitted that in December 2014, A-Grade red sanders was sold at Rs 1,95,54,300 per ton and now the government had permitted sale at Rs 38,56,926 per ton for A-grade. Similarly, red sanders of B and C grades were also sold at the lowest price. In all, Andhra Pradesh had suffered loss of about Rs 726 crore, he added.
AP advocate general Dammalapati Srinivas submitted that the state government has decided to keep the names of bidders and other details ‘secret’ till the highest bidder is confirmed. All this process is meant to see that there is ‘transparency’.
The auction process was being conducted by MSTC, a Central government corporation, and it was instructed not to disclose any details, he explained.
Disputing with the submissions of the AG, the petitioner’s counsel said that the action of the authorities in keeping the bidders names secret is against the principles of transparency. If anyone had formed into a ring or cartel how would the officers come to know and stop that. The absence of such mechanism is illegal and the whole process is wrong, he argued.
After hearing both the sides, the bench asked the state government to file a detailed counter affidavit explaining the process of conducting e-auction and to give names of the successful bidders after confirmation is complete.
The bench posted the matter after two weeks for further hearing.