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In contracts, court can interfere only if if there is an element of bias, mala fide, arbitrariness or unreasonableness

In C. Karthikeyan Vs. The Secretary to Government Rural Development and Panchayat Raj Department and Ors., the Madras High Court while referring to the decisions of B.S.N. Joshi and Sons Ltd. v. Nair Coal Services Ltd. and Michigan Rubber (India) Ltd. v. State of Karnataka, held that in the matter of contracts, the Court cannot interfere. However, if there is an element of bias, mala fide, arbitrariness or unreasonableness, the Court can exercise its discretionary power and review the same. In the light of ratio laid down by the Apex Court in the decisions cited above, in present case, there is no arbitrariness in imposition of conditions in Clauses 3(4) and 3(5) of the General Conditions or any mala fide intention on part of Respondent authorities to favour a particular person nor any element of bias or unreasonableness in the tender notification, except that imposition of such a condition is only to ensure that the scheme is implemented without any difficulty. Further, though this writ petition has been filed as a public interest litigation, since the Petitioner has not produced any material to show his bona fide, the same is liable to be dismissed.

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