Neutral Citation No. - 2025:AHC-LKO:45115-DB Court No. - 2 Case :- WRIT - C No. - 7338 of 2025 Petitioner :- Lokendra Narayan Rai Respondent :- Union Of India Thru. Joint Secretary,F.F.R.Div.Enemy Property,New Delhi And 4 Others Counsel for Petitioner :- Sanjay Prakash Tiwari,Rashmi Singh Counsel for Respondent :- A.S.G.I.,C.S.C. Hon'ble Mrs. Sangeeta Chandra,J. Hon'ble Brij Raj Singh,J. Heard learned counsel for the petitioner, Shri Deepanshu Das, learned counsel for the respondent nos.1 to 3 and Shri Raj Bux Singh, learned Additional Chief Standing Counsel, who appears for the State-Respondent nos.4 and 5. This petition has been filed by the petitioner with the following main prayers : "(i) Issue a writ of mandamus or a writ, order or direction in the nature of mandamus commanding the opposite parties to produce all the relevant record that is; bid history of the lot pertaining to the auction and sale of enemy property dated 05/09/2024 with regard to enemy property mentioned at Serial No. 42 (Khasra No. 633) in which the property amount extravagantly increased and the petitioner was asked to pay the huge amount of Rs. 6,61,04,000/- as contained in Annexure No. 1 even though the petitioner has not bid for the same. (ii). Issue a writ in the nature of mandamus or a writ, order or direction in the nature of mandamus commanding the Opposite Parties to return the security amount/EMD amount in favour of the petitioner of the property at Serial No. 42 (Khasra No. 633) as contained in Annexure No.2 as it has been sold to some other bidder without redressing the grievance of the petitioner. (iii) Issue any order or direction commanding the opposite parties to consider and decide the representations given by the petitioner via email on 04/01/2025 and 10/07/2025 as contained in Annexure No. 15 to this writ petition." It is the case of the petitioner that the respondent nos.1 to 3 had advertised for an e-auction to be held for two lots of land ; property no.36 bearing khasra no.628 and property no.42 bearing khasra no.633. The reserve price for property no.36 was Rs.27,10,480/- and the reserve price for property no.42 was Rs.66,00,000/-. The petitioner was declared H-1 i.e. successful bidder for property nos.36 and 42. He later came to know that the property at serial no.42 had been shown to be auctioned in his favour for Rs.6,61,04,000/-. It has been submitted that the petitioner received information from the respondents on 06.09.2024 that he had been declared H-1 bidder and it was only then that he came to know that the e-auction price for the highest bid for property no.42 had been wrongly recorded by the respondents as 6,61,04,000/-. The petitioner submitted a representation through e-mail to the respondents stating that the bid amount had been incorrectly recorded in respect of property no.42. He raised this grievance repeatedly through various e-mails. However, the respondents have now issued a letter to the petitioner requiring him to deposit the remaining amount of Rs.6,61,04,000/ as accepted by them, failing which, they may forfeit the earnest money deposit. Hence, the instant writ petition has been filed. Learned counsel appearing for respondent nos.1 to 3 has produced before this Court the written instructions sent by the office of the Custodian of Enemy Property for India, Head Office, First Floor, East Wind, Connaught Place, New Delhi wherein it has been mentioned that bid history sheet provided by MSTC reveals that Shri Lokendra Narayan Rai had placed a bid of Rs.6,61,04,000/- for lot no.42 and emerged as the highest bidder. He later failed to pay the bid amount, due to which his earnest money deposit was forfeited. He has alleged that the inordinate increase in the bid amount was due to a technical glitch on the MSTC portal. However, when the MSTC was contacted, they denied any such claim in their claim. It has been further observed that M/s Surajmal Agencies applied to raise the bid twice during the interim period between the bid of Rs.80,54,000/- from Shri Ankit Singh and one from Shri Lokendra Narayan Rai. As is evident from the bid sheet if Rs.66,00,000/- had been the bid of Shri Lokendra Narayan Rai, he could not have emerged as H-1 as Ankit Singh had already offered Rs.80,54,000/- at 15:58:08 hrs. Shri Surajmal Agencies Private Limited had offered Rs,6,60,79,000 at 15:59:08 hrs. and Lokendra Narayan Rai had offered Rs.6,61,04,000/- at 16:00:21 hrs. It has also been stated in the written instructions that even in the 2nd case for lot no.36, the bid history does not reveal any inordinate jump. Copy of such instructions is kept on record. We have gone through the terms and conditions of e-auction and find that failure to deposit the remaining amount of the highest bid leads only to forfeiture of earnest money deposit. We do not find any good ground to grant the relief prayed for in this writ petition. The writ petition is, accordingly, dismissed. Order Date :- 4.8.2025 Mahesh Digitally signed by :- MAHESH KUMAR High Court of Judicature at Allahabad, Lucknow Bench Digitally signed by :- MAHESH KUMAR High Court of Judicature at Allahabad, Lucknow Bench