Nisha Ghosal
A Supreme Court bench of Justices S. Abdul Nazeer and BR Gavai stated that the person who is blacklisted must have an opportunity to show cause against the blacklisting.
The bench said this while setting aside the blacklist order against Umc Technologies Pvt. Ltd.
The Food Corporation of India had issued a blacklisting order against Umc Technologies Private Limited for a period of five years.
The Supreme Court was approached against the High Court’s order that dismissed the challenge against the blacklisting order.
The petitioner sought to generate the justifiable reasons in the show-cause notice against the noticee.
The Court also said:
“The Corporation’s notice is completely silent about blacklisting and as such, it could not have led the appellant to infer that such an action could be taken by the Corporation in pursuance of this notice.”
“Had the Corporation expressed its mind in the show cause notice to black list, the appellant could have filed a suitable reply for the same.”
“In our view, the order of blacklisting the appellant clearly traversed beyond the bounds of the show cause notice which is impermissible in law.”
Highlighting the impact of blacklisting a company, the court observed, “Here, it may be gainful to describe the concept of blacklisting and the graveness of the consequences occasioned by it.”
The bench said, “Not only does blacklisting takes away this privilege, it also tarnishes the blacklisted person’s reputation and brings the person’s character into question.”
Furthermore, it said, “Blacklisting also has long-lasting civil consequences for the future business prospects of the blacklisted person.”