Orissa High Court Ms. Innprint And Others vs State Of Odisha And Others on 13 January, 2017 Equivalent citations: AIR 2017 (NOC) 205 (ORI.) FULL BENCH ORISSA HIGH COURT: CUTTACK FULL BENCH W.P.(C). No. 11817 of 2016 AND W.P.(C). No. 12427 of 2016 In the matter of a reference made by a Division Bench of this Court vide order dated 27.09.2016. M/s. Mohapatra Binders and others [W.P.(C) No.11817 of 2016] M/s. Innprint and others [W.P.(C) No.12427 of 2016] ... Petitioners versus State of Odisha and others (in both) ... Opp. Parties For petitioners : Mr. R.K. Mohanty, Sr. Advocate, along with M/s. D. Mohanty, S. Mohanty, D. Baradwaj and A. Mohanty, Advocates [W.P.(C) No.11817 of 2016] Mr. R.K. Rath, Sr. Advocate, along with M/s. Digambara Mishra, S.K. Satapathy, Advocates [W.P.(C) No.12427 of 2016] For opp. parties: Mr. S.P. Mishra, Advocate General Mr. Sisir Kr. Das, Sr.Standing Counsel Mr. A.K.Pandey, Standing Counsel 2 PRESENT: THE HON'BLE THE CHIEF JUSTICE MR. VINEET SARAN THE HON'BLE DR. JUSTICE A.K. RATH AND THE HON'BLE DR. JUSTICE B.R.SARANGI Date of Hearing: 15.12.2016 :: Date of Judgment: 13.01.2017 VINEET SARAN, C.J. The dispute involved in these writ petitions is whether the petitioners herein, who are small book binding units and cover/text printers of the State of Odisha, would be entitled to exclusive right of State Government work of book binding and printing, under the provisions of Industrial Policy Resolutions (for short 'IPR') issued by the State Government, as well as the Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises Development Act, 2006 (for short 'MSMED Act'), and the Odisha MSMED Policy of 2009 (for short 'OMSMED Policy) issued there under by the State Government; or can such work be awarded by way of inviting national tender. 2. The petitioners claim benefit under the various IPRs issued from time to time, as well as the MSMED Act and the policy framed there under and contend that in case 3 the benefit of exclusive work/purchase (of book binding/printing) is not accorded to them, it would amount to frustrating the objectives of the IPRs as well as the MSMED Act and the policy of the State Government issued there under. 3. The petitioners in the leading writ petition No. 11817 of 2016 are proprietors of small book binding units covered under the definition of "micro industries" under the MSMED Act, and the petitioners in the other writ petition No. 12427 of 2016 are covers and text printers registered with the District Industries Centres (for short 'DIC') and carry on their business as Small Scale Industries (for short 'SSI') defined under the IPR 1980 and subsequent IPRs issued by the State Government. The challenge in these writ petitions is to the tender call notice dated 09.06.2016 issued by the Director, Textbook Production and Marketing, Bhubaneswar inviting national tender for "Printing and Binding of Nationalised Textbooks for the academic session 201718". 4 4. In the State of Odisha, there are as many as 5000 printing press and binding units, which are set up under the approval of respective District Industries Centres (for short "DICs") under the Industrial Policy framed by the Industries Department, Government of Odisha. Thereby, they are all covered as SSI units as per IPR 1980 and subsequent IPRs issued from time to time by the Government of Odisha. The respective proprietors of such units, as per the schemes, have modernized their printing and binding units by installing modern equipments by incurring huge loans from different banks as well as non banking organizations. Most of them are technicians, skilled and unskilled labourers, who are maintaining their livelihood from the printing and binding work of nationalized text books. A large number of skilled workers/labourers are being engaged in such type of micro industries so as to earn their livelihood. 5. The State Government continued to procure the nationalized tex