High court lifts bar on vehicle security registration plates

KOLKATA: The Calcutta high court on Wednesday lifted the bar on introducing high security registration plates for motor vehicles in Bengal.
The court had earlier restrained the West Bengal Transport Infrastructure Development Corporation Ltd from introducing the system.
On Wednesday, the case came up for hearing in the court of Justice Jayanta Biswas.Subbo Micro System, which was awarded the contract for manufacturing the registration plate, submitted that they were given the work order of contract for preparing and delivering the high security registration plates for vehicles on November 25, 2010.
Joymalya Bagchi and Atanu Roychoudury, counsel for Subbo, said that the petitioner who had obtained the court's order was not in picture as he had withdrawn his bid in July, 2010, as a result of which the work order was issued in Subbo's favour.
Manik Das, counsel for transport department, supported the submission of Bagchi that the petitioner had withdrawn his bid and the work was then given to Subbo.
After hearing all the parties, Justice Biswas held that as the work order had already been served upon the selected party, the injunction order should not be extended anymore, However, the court directed all the parties to file their respective affidavits and adjourned the case for next six weeks.
Following a writ petition filed by Sun Biotechnology Ltd, the court had passed the order that "if the work order is not served to any party, it cannot served till next date of hearing".
The petition was moved on January 25, alleging that although the petitioner was the lowest bidder to the tender, the department was contemplating to allot the work to another party.