NCERT Paper Procurement Case: Govt Orders Action Against Officials

New Delhi: Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan has ordered a probe into the role of NCERT officials who failed in defending in the high court a decision of "black listing action" against a firm tasked with supplying paper for textbooks, sources said.

Bafna Global Venture Private Limited moved the Delhi High Court on June 24 citing the blacklisting order by NCERT issued on June 22 barring it for two years from participating in the procurement process of National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT).

While nobody from the NCERT appeared for the high court hearing, the court granted immunity to the firm from coercive action till further orders. The court also restrained the NCERT from invoking over Rs 6 crore bank guarantee furnished by the paper supplier.

"Taking serious note of reports that NCERT failed to effectively defend its decision to blacklist a paper supplier before the Delhi High Court, Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan has directed strict action against the officers responsible for the lapse," a source said.

"The minister has ordered accountability for the officials be fixed who failed to take the necessary legal steps, reinforcing a zero-tolerance approach towards administrative and legal lapses while ensuring greater accountability in textbook production and procurement," the source added.

The source further said that the minister while cracking the whip on officials who have defied the high court directions, ordered for initiating strict legal action against them.

"The ministry has asked NCERT to examine how Bafna Global Venture Private Limited was selected despite allegedly not meeting the required conditions, why it subsequently failed to adhere to the paper-supply schedule and how the council's case went unrepresented in court," the source said.

The firm argued in the court that the delay in printing of books was because hydrogen peroxide, the bleaching agent for the purpose of manufacturing of paper, was not available to the war in Iran.

The case is now listed for July 20 in the Delhi High Court.