Civil Writ Petition No.5172 of 2010 1 IN THE HIGH COURT OF PUNJAB AND HARYANA AT CHANDIGARH Civil Writ Petition No.5172 of 2010(O&M) Date of Decision:18.01.2011 Anil Kumar and another ......Petitioners Versus State of Punjab and others .....Respondents CORAM: HON'BLE MR. JUSTICE MEHINDER SINGH SULLAR. Present: Mr.Amit Rawal, Advocate, for the petitioners. Mr.Sartaj Singh Gill, Deputy Advocate General, Punjab, for respondent Nos.1 to 3. Ms.Jarnail Kaur, Advocate, for respondent Nos.4 and 5. **** M EHINDER S INGH S ULLAR , J.(oral) The challenge in the instant writ petition filed by the petitioners, is to the impugned Resolution dated 01.02.2010(Annexure P/13), whereby their names were delisted as Contractors, to carry out the work of Municipal Council, Mandi Gobindgarh, in the garb of clause 7 of the guidelines dated 12.01.2000(Annexure P/14), which is, as under:- “Contractors, who are near relatives of Councillors, Officers/officials of concerned Municipal Corporation/Municipal Committee, i.e., wife, husband, .....children, brother, sister, brother/sister-in-law, son/daughter- in-law, uncle, Ist cousin and father-in-law shall not be enlisted in any category. The agencies are required to be screened carefully at the time of enlistment/renewal. Affidavit in this regard from the agency may also be obtained.” 2. Sequelly, the petitioners have also assailed the impugned order dated 24.02.2010(Annexure P/15), vide which they were debarred from participating in Civil Writ Petition No.5172 of 2010 2 the work-contract of the indicated Committee. 3. What is not disputed here is that the respondents have passed the impugned orders(Annexures P/13 and P/15), on the basis of above reproduced clause 7 of the impugned instructions(Annexure P/14). 4. At the very outset and very fairly, learned State Counsel has produced the letter bearing No.1683-1721 dated 12.11.2010, which is taken on record, by virtue of which the State Government has amended clause 7 of the indicated guidelines(Annexure P/14) to the following effect:- “Person who is relation of any member of the Urban Local Bodies in any of the manners specified in Rule 7 of Punjab Municipal General Rule, 1979 shall not be enlisted as a contractor for undertaking any contract for such Urban Local Bodies without the previous sanction of the Competent Authority”. 5. In this manner, learned counsel for the parties are ad idem that in view of the indicated amendment of clause 7 of the instructions(Annexure P/14), the impugned orders(Annexures P/13 and P/15) deserve to be set aside in this context. 6. In the light of aforesaid reasons, the present writ petition is accepted and the impugned orders(Annexures P/13 and P/15) are hereby quashed in the obtaining circumstances of the case. January 18, 2011 (MEHINDER SINGH SULLAR) seema JUDGE