IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUDICATURE AT PATNA LPA No.1037 of 2007 1. The State of Bihar through the Chief Secretary, Secretariat, Patna 2. The Commissioner and Secretary, Land Reforms and Revenue Department, Govt. of Bihar, Secretariat, Patna 3. The Director, Land Records, Survey Settlement, Department of Land Revenue, Govt. of Bihar, Patna 4. The Collector, Siwan ……………… Respondents - Appellants Versus M/S Panchsheel Softwares(A Unit of Panchsheel Agroils Exports India Pvt. Ltd.) having its registered office at 55, Vaishali, Kotra, Sultanabad, Bhopal and Camp Office at Collectorate, Siwan through its incharge Shri Devendu Kumar Jha, son of Satyanarayan Jha, resident of Rukunpura, Bailey Road, P.S. Danapur, District- Patna- 014 ………………….Petitioner - Respondent. ----------- For the appellants : Mr. Lalit Kishore, Additional Advocate General III For the respondent : Mrs. Namrata Mishra -------- P R E S E N T Hon'ble the Chief Justice & Hon'ble Mr. Justice Kishore K. Mandal ------- Dated, the 8th December, 2008. We heard Mr. Lalit Kishore, Additional Advocate General III and perused the available material. 2. Mr. Lalit Kishore, Additional Advocate General III strenuously urged that as per the work order dated 05th May, 2005, the contractor (respondent) did not complete the work of computerization of revenue records and that the operators were not appointed by the - 2 - contractor. 3. The submission of the Additional Advocate General III is founded on misconstruction of the contract entered with the appellants and the respondent. Firstly, the document dated 05th May, 2005 which the Additional Advocate General III cites as work order is not a work order, but only a supply order. Secondly, the computerization of revenue records does not seem to be part of the job for which contract has been arrived at between the appellants and the contractor. The respondent was to supply computers on lease basis which were hired by the appellants on the terms and conditions set out therein. Of course, the contractor was to provide skilled computer operators, but by this, it cannot be said that the contractor was assigned the job of computerization of revenue records. That the contentions of the Additional Advocate General III are founded on erroneous premise can be seen from the perusal of the document dated 05th May, 2005 itself. The said document reads thus: “Collectorate Siwan (District Revenue Section) Letter no. 434/Rev. To Panchsheel Software, Flat No. 101 Sara Apartment, Punai Chak (Mohanpur) Patna- 800 023 Siwan, Dated 5.5.05 Sub:- Regarding tender dated 07-04-2005 to hire computers on lease basis. With Reference to your offer, I hereby order you to supply 32 nos. of computers & UPS, 16 nos. of HP 1010 Leaser printer and 16 nos. of 5 KVA Genset. The rates as - 3 - decided with your consent, are given below:- Sl. No. ITEM NAME RENT RATE PER UNIT PER MONTH 1. Pentium IV 3.0 Ghz, 1.44 MB FDD, 80 GB HDD, Optical Combo Drive. 15 COLOUR MONITOR, 10/100 ETHERNET CARD, INTERNET READY KEY BOARD. MULTIMEDIA, OPTICAL MOUSE, 2 SERIAL PORT. 1 PARALLEL PORT, 2 USB PORTS, Internal Modem, PRELOADED WITH WIN XP PROFESSIONAL, MS- OFFICE 2000 MS FRONT PAGE 2002, ANTIVIRUS 2005 Rs. 2500.00 2. Printer Laser jet Rs. 2500.00 3. UPS (0.60 KVA) Rs. 3500.00 4. Generator set (5KVA) Rs. 3500.00 5. Skilled Computer Operator Rs. 3500.00 Terms & Conditions:- 1. The system must be brand new & of HCL/ACER/Wipro/HP/IBM make. 2. The work will be done in two shift i.e. 6 A.M. to 2 P.M. & 2 P.M. to 10 P.M. 3. The Ethernet card must be installed in each system. 4. The lease will be for a period of three years. 5. The system will become the property of the District Administration after three years. It would be the responsibility of the supplier to handover the systems in good conditions after three years. 6. The system must be installed on or before 15th May 2005. 7. The operators may have to stay in Block HQs. 8. The operators must be skilled and having very good typing speed in Hindi as well as in English. They must have good knowledge of operating system and MS-Office software. 9. All the maintenance work would be the responsibility of the supplier. The supplier at their cost would also do hardware replacement. - 4 - 10. If system remains out of order for more than 24 hours, a penalty of Rs. 100.00 per day will be charged. 11. The lease rent will be paid monthly at the end of every month on getting the bill from the supplier. 12. The supplier will also do generator installation. 13. If the supplier fails to repair the systems the same would be got repaired by the District Office and then the system would become the property of the District Administration from there onwards. Collector, Siwan” 4. As indicated above, the contract is not for doing a job by the contractor as it is not a work order, but he was required to supply computers on lease basis on the terms and conditions mentioned in the document. As a matter of fact, the document dated 05th May, 2005 is a supply order. We are, thus, satisfied that the order of the Single Judge does not call for any interference. 5. L.P.A. is dismissed in limine. R. M. Lodha, CJ Kishore K. Mandal, J. Sunil