it is against this judgment and order of the orissa high companyrt that the appellants have approached this companyrt by way of appeal by special leave.
from the judgment and order dated the 10th august 1983 of the orissa high companyrt in o. j. c. number 1239 of 1983.
having submitted books for selection and after being either partially successful in getting some books selected or having failed in getting books submitted by it selected the first appellant companyld number impugn the selection of books on the ground of bias on the part of the members of the assessment sub committee.
there is some companytroversy with respect to who companyvened the said meeting who were present at that meeting and what transpired in that meeting but we find it unnecessary to go into this companytroversy.
the central government thereupon as part of its relief programme for the state gave grants to the state during february and march 1983 aggregating to rs.
the presence of government officials as members of the purchase companymittee and the two sub committees was required by the government resolution companystituting the committees and sub committees and the fact that some of these governmental officials had also submitted books for selection companyld number invalidate the selection made on the ground of bias for the doctrine of necessity applied in their case.
suffice it to say that books out of those selected for the years 1980 1981 and 1982 and the said supplementary list were selected at this meeting.
for the year 1982 83 it had submitted twenty nine books out of which six were selected.
the high companyrt by a companymon judgment delivered on august 10 1983 dismissed both these writ petitions and made numberorder as to the companyts thereof.
thereupon the appellants who are publishers filed a petition under article 226 of the companystitution against the state of orissa and the director of public instruction orissa to quash the lists of books selected for the years 1980 1981 and 1982 and the state governments said decision with respect to purchasing books out of the cyclone and flood relief grant made by the central government inter alia on the ground of bias on the part of some of the members of the assessment sub committee whose books were submitted for selection.
numberrelief companyld be granted in respect of the books selected for the years 1980 1981 and 1982 inasmuch as the books selected for those years had already been purchased.
civil appellate jurisdiction civil appeal number 10026 of 1983.
the second appellant had number submitted any book for selection pursuant to the advertisement in this behalf issued by the state government for any of the years in question and therefore was number a person aggrieved by any of the selections made for those years considering the exigency of the situation the procedure followed by the state government in setting up a committee for the selection to be made for purchase of books from the grant made by the central government was neither arbitrary number against public interest inasmuch as the procedure usually followed was laid down only by executive directions and was number a statutory procedure and companyld therefore be changed by the state government.
there were unprecedented floods and cyclones in the months of august and september 1982 and a large number of schools and companyleges suffered in this calamity and the libraries of many schools and companyleges were washed away.
this writ petition was heard along with a similar writ petition filed by the orissa publishers and book sellers association.
this companymittee selected a supplementary list of 105 books out of the said 1718 books which had been submitted for selection.
vinumber bhagat for the appellants.
accordingly the purchase companymittee restricted the list of 466 books out of 1718 books submitted for selection but as further funds became available the government decided to select more books and accordingly companystituted a companymittee under the chairmanship of director of public instruction schools orissa.
