The appointment is sought in the backdrop of Western Railway issuing Letter of Acceptance (LOA) in favour of N.P. Enterprise, the applicant, pursuant to a tender being floated for mechanised and manual cleaning and house keeping of 13 railway stations of Bombay Division for period of four years at a cost of Rs.11,32,71,255/-. On 2/1/2020, a contract agreement was executed between the parties, and it provided that the notice inviting tender, instructions to tenderers, General Conditions of Contract (GCC), Special Conditions of Contract, other conditions agreed to and documented, shall be construed as a part of the agreement. 3 In the wake of the Pandemic, the applicant was directed to reduce manpower and was issued letter of deployment of workers. The Railway, vide its letter dated 2/1/2023, raised certain issues as regards payment made to the workers, and though the applicant replied to the allegations, which, according to it, were vague, and sought clarifications on some aspects, the applicant demanded outstanding payment of last eight months, as per the statement of demand and asked the amount to be cleared. On 20/6/2023, the applicant was blacklisted and imposed fine of Rs.5,00,000/- (Rupees Five lakhs) without any show cause notice being issued. Ultimately, on 13/7/2023, the respondents terminated the contract, forfeited the performance guarantee and debarred the applicant for a period of two years from participating, in any work with the Mumbai Division of Railway.
