CHENNAI: The tender process for procurement of LED bulbs and fittings for street lights in the State was stayed by the Madras High Court on Tuesday.
The first bench of Acting Chief Justice Huluvadi G Ramesh and Justice RMT Teekka Raman, before which a PIL from social activist C Karthikeyan of T Nagar, a member of the Federation of Anti-Corruption Team India, came up, granted the interim stay for two weeks.
The tenders were invited through e-tender notice for bids from eligible bidders for supply of 9,06,310 20 Watts LED lights with fittings. This scheme is funded by the Centre. For this, the Collectors of all districts called for tenders.
The petitioner alleged that clause 4 of Sec. 3 of the general conditions/notification of the tender, which sought a report on the quality of LED bulbs from Chennai Corporation Electrical department, was illegal and will lead to irregularities.
The National Accreditation Board for Testing and Calibration Laboratories (NABL) is the competent authority to test the samples.
The Chennai Corporation electrical department is not equipped with instruments to test and it was not authorized by NABL. Samples of all prospective bidders had already been tested by NABL and the same cannot be done by an incompetent authority such as the Corporation electrical department, petitioner contended.