ANSHUL KUMAR JAIN Vs. STATE OF CHHATTISGARH

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Rejection of the technical bid of the petitioner submitted against tender notification dated 17.08.2020 bearing system tender No.67004 made the petitioner to approach this Court by way of filing instant writ petition with following reliefs :

(2.) Case of the petitioner is that, respondent No.5 issued a tender notification No.67004 dated 17.08.2020 for construction work mentioning terms and conditions therein. The petitioner participated in the said tender proceeding and submitted his bid along with other interested bidders. Upon opening of the technical bid by the respondent authorities, technical bid of the petitioner came to be rejected on the ground that he has not submitted correct work completion certificate as required in Form Annexure-I of the tender document. Workwise details of completed works and volume over the last five years as Annexure-I submitted by the petitioner was incomplete. Respondent No.5 sought an explanation vide letter dated 20.10.2020 (Annexure P/3), which was replied by the petitioner and upon considering the explanation offered by the petitioner, his technical bid was rejected. The petitioner has pleaded that main ground for rejection of his technical bid was submission of work completion certificate issued by the Assistant Engineer Nagar Palika Parishad, Akaltara to be not proper. Requirement under the tender conditions for issuance of work completion certificate is to be only by the Executive Engineer, but there was no post of Executive Engineer in the post set up of the office of Nagar Palika Parishad, Akaltara, hence, the certificate submitted by the petitioner is valid and correct. Rejection of technical bid was uncalled for and the action of the respondent authorities treating Annexure-I to be incomplete is highly arbitrary and illegal.

(3.) Respondent/State submitted reply to the writ petition pleading therein that the petitioner was communicated about rejection of his technical bid on 31.10.2020 on the ground that Annexure-I is incomplete. Under the terms and conditions of the tender document, the petitioner is required to submit work order issued by the authorities and work completion certificate of the work which the bidder has done in last five years. The petitioner submitted the work order issued by the office of Nagar Palika Parishad, Akaltara dated 19.01.2017 issued by the Chief Municipal Officer, Nagar Palika Parishad, Akaltara. The petitioner instead of filing work completion certificate of the aforesaid work dated 19.01.2017 issued by the competent authority, has filed experience certificate issued by the Assistant Engineer, Nagar Palika Parishad, Akaltara. The documents in its form does not fulfill the conditions as mentioned in the tender document for submission of work completion certificate issued by the Executive Engineer. Assistant Engineer even otherwise is not authorized to issue any work completion certificate to any person and it is the Chief Municipal Officer who is to issue work completion certificate to which, the petitioner was well aware as he has obtained work completion certificate on 02.05.2018 of one of the works done for Nagar Palika Parishad, Akaltara vide work order dated 31.12.2016. The said work completion certificate was issued by joint signature of three persons i.e. Chief Municipal Officer, Assistant Engineer and Sub Engineer. The submission of the petitioner that upon issuance of letter Annexure P/3 by respondent No.5 asking him to submit correct document/certificate, to which, the petitioner has submitted on the same day, is not correct. The letter Anneuxre P/3 is only an intimation and seeking clarification from the petitioner with regard to incomplete document submitted by him. The work done under the Municipality is governed by the Chhattisgarh Municipality Account Rules, 1971 wherein under Rule 150, work completion certificate is to be issued in Form 91 by the Chief Municipal Officer, hence, Assistant Engineer is not competent authority to issue work completion certificate.