Hon'ble Division Bench of this Court in W.A.(MD)No.528 of 2016 (V.Dharmaraj V. The Managing Director and Another) by order dated 06.04.2016 also held that merely because a person happens to be the highest bidder, he does not acquire a right to compel auctioneer to accept the offer. The Tamil Nadu Housing Board is the vender of the commercial plots. It is always open to the vender to accept the offer or to reject the same. There is considerable merit in the contention of the learned standing counsel for the respondents that the tender notification should only be considered as an invitation to offer and that what was offered by the petitioner herein should be considered as offer in the proper sense of the term. It is open to the Board either to accept the same or to reject the same. In this case, the sale confirmation committee had assigned the reason that the offer amount is not competitive and that the site is located in a prime location on the four way road and that the rate offered by the petitioner is less than the comparable sale value of commercial sites sold earlier and that is why, they decided to reject the same and go for re-auction to fetch more revenue to the Board. Since solid reasons have been assigned in the rejection letter, I am of the view that no interference is called for. I could have faulted the Board if they had retained the 25% amount deposited by the petitioner herein. In fact along with the rejection letter, a cheque representing the amount paid by the petitioner had also been enclosed. Therefore, I have to necessarily hold that the respondent/Board had acted strictly in terms of the tender terms and conditions. By no stretch of imagination can I fault the conduct of the respondent/Board as unreasonable. It is true that the writ petitioner was a bonafide participant in the entire process. It is true that the petitioner had acted in terms of the tender. But then, that by itself will not confer any right as such. Only if the interest of the petitioner had blossomed into a legal right, she could have maintained a writ petition before this Court. In this case, even before such blossoming could take place, the entire process got aborted. Therefore, I am not in a position to grant any relief. The writ petition stands dismissed. No costs. Consequently, connected miscellaneous petition is closed.
