LAHORE (Muhammad Ashfaq) – The Lahore High Court has ruled that an intra-court appeal is not maintainable in public procurement disputes where the Punjab Public Procurement Regulatory Authority (PPRA) Rules provide a complete statutory remedy.
The judgment was delivered by a two-member bench comprising Justice Chaudhry Sultan Mahmood and Justice Malik Muhammad Owais Khalid while deciding an intra-court appeal filed by a private company.
The court was informed that the Punjab Health Department had invited e-tenders for the procurement of medical equipment, surgical disposables, implants and sutures for the 2025-26 financial year.
Following the technical evaluation process, the Technical Evaluation Committee declared the bids of certain companies technically non-responsive, a decision later upheld by the Grievance Redressal Committee.
More to read: Farrukh Khokhar, two others get life terms in Majid Satti murder case
The affected companies subsequently approached the Managing Director of the Punjab Public Procurement Regulatory Authority under Rule 67-A of the Punjab Procurement Rules 2014. The managing director overturned the earlier decisions, declared the companies technically qualified and directed the procurement process to proceed in accordance with the law.
A constitutional petition challenging that decision was dismissed by a single bench of the Lahore High Court, after which the petitioner filed an intra-court appeal.
In its detailed judgment, the division bench held that the legal forums established under Rules 67 and 67-A of the Punjab Procurement Rules 2014 are substantive statutory forums with full authority to review, uphold, modify or set aside decisions of the Technical Evaluation Committee.
The court further ruled that the managing director's decision forms part of the statutory review process rather than constituting an original order. Therefore, the bar contained in Section 3(2) of the Law Reforms Ordinance, 1972 applies, making an intra-court appeal unavailable.
Citing several Supreme Court precedents, the court observed that where a special law provides a complete appellate or review mechanism, the right to file an intra-court appeal does not survive unless expressly provided by law.
Holding that the present case fell squarely within that legal principle, the Lahore High Court declared the intra-court appeal non-maintainable and dismissed it.