JUDGMENT : The grievance of the petitioner is that though the petitioner’s bid for the supply of cooked diet to the concerned government hospital was the lowest, the bid of the fourth respondent has been accepted and the order placed on such respondent on extraneous considerations. When this petition was received on April 8, 2015, the court observed that a substantial case had been made out by the petitioner and took a prima facie view that the contract had not been awarded to the lowest bidder. However, despite the work order being suspended, quite remarkably, by applying the principles of quantum meruit, the fourth respondent was permitted to continue the supply. The State has filed an affidavit. The second annexure to the affidavit details the commercial bids of the four bidders who qualified at the technical stage. Clearly, the petitioner and one Arun Kumar Nandy had quoted the lowest and the respondent no. 4 quoted the third-lowest and the respondent no. 5 quoted the highest. The State explains that the standard rates including the permissible margin were fixed by the tender terms and the bidders had only to indicate the administrative charges that they would seek over and above the standard rates for the products and an amount fixed towards service or profit or the like. The petitioner and Nandy bid 0% as administrative charges, the fourth respondent bid 4.99% on account of administrative charges and the respondent no. 5 bid 6.99% on such head. Astonishingly and without the petitioner and Nandy being disqualified, the third-lowest or second-highest bid was accepted which resulted in an additional financial burden being taken by the State when it was possible to not incur any expenses on account of administrative charges by choosing one of the two who had bid 0% administrative charges. This petition has been filed under Article 226 of the Constitution which has everything to do with public law and the larger picture than only the individual complaint which is brought to the notice of the constitutional court. The court would be missing the woods for the trees if the lis were decided by merely cancelling the work order awarded in favour of the undeserving fourth respondent without making an attempt to remove the cancer cells within the system that have allowed such a remarkable misadventure - quite akin to daylight robbery - to be undertaken with public funds. There must surely be a secretary who heads the department or an hon’ble minister who guides the secretary and it is painful to see that such a scam has got away without any intervention at any level. Indeed, the several matters pertaining to cooked diet throw up amazing anomalies that are too baffling to be comprehended. There is either no system in place or a system which turns all conventional, rational the rules on their heads. It is necessary in such context that though an immediate order may be made qua the supply of cooked diet to the relevant government hospital, yet the petition may not be disposed of till an attempt is made to cleanse the system. At the end of the day, cleaning up the country is the present order and there is no better place to start the use of disinfectants than in government hospitals, if only to ensure that they are not sent to the cleaners. The work order issued in favour of the fourth respondent stands annulled. No further supplies will be effected by the fourth respondent to the concerned government hospital after April 1, 2016. In other words, the re-tendering process consequent upon the cancellation of the work order should be completed by March 31, 2016 so that an appropriate supplier is identified to effect supplies to the concerned hospital from the beginning of the next financial year. The Principal Secretary in the Department of Health will file a report by way of an affidavit when the matter appears next four weeks hence to explain how the third-lowest bidder could have been awarded a contract without the two lower bidders being disqualified. The concerned secretary will file the affidavit after it is shown to the hon’ble minister at the helm of the Health Department. It is proposed that considering the serious anomalies in the matter of supply of cooked diet to several government hospitals, that unless a suitable explanation is received and a credible corrective mechanism is indicated in the relevant affidavit, an investigation team may be set up by the court to look into the anomalies in the matter of supply of cooked diet across all government hospitals. The affidavit to be filed by the secretary should identify the personnel responsible for this colossal scam of choosing the third-lowest bidder for the award of the contract without considering the two lower bids.