MADURAI: The Madurai Bench of Madras High Court on Friday sought counter affidavit from the state on a petition that challenged the tender notification issued by the Registration department to select a Managed Service Provider for establishing Model Registration Hubs (MRHs).
The Madurai District Document Writers Association, represented by its president U Rajamanickam, stated in the petition that in order to facilitate paperless and presence-less registration, the Inspector General of Registration proposed the establishment of 25 Model Registration Hubs (MRHs).
A GO was issued on October 28, accepting the proposal and appointing the Additional Inspector General of Registration (S&R) as the tender inviting authority and the Inspector General of Registration as the tender accepting authority. But even prior to the issuance of the GO, the Additional Inspector General had issued a tender notification on October 16. The last date for submission of tenders is November 16, and the bids are scheduled to be opened on November 17, he added.
The association stated that the notification has been issued without incorporating the preferential procurement provisions contemplated under Rules 30-A, 30-B and 30-C of the Tamil Nadu Transparency in Tenders Rules, 2000, providing for procurement preferences to domestic enterprises, government departments and PSUs, and enterprises owned by SCs and STs, respectively.
“The tender conditions are also silent regarding the continued role of licensed document writers in the preparation and uploading of documents through the proposed hubs,” it said, adding that the livelihood of nearly 5,500 licensed document writers is at stake. After the Advocate General Vijay Narayan assured the court that the deadline would be extended till November 30, Justice L Victoria Gowri adjourned the case to November 25.
