ASHISH KEDIA Vs. STATE OF CHHATTISGARH

JUDGEMENT

(1.) By means of this petition, the Petitioner has prayed for a writ restraining the Respondent-Municipal Council, Akaltara from proceeding further with the tender process pursuant to tender notice dated 24.09.2016 and has also prayed that he being the sole successful qualifying tenderer in the earlier tender dated 22.07.2016, the tender for the work of beautification of Gopiya pond, be awarded to the Petitioner.

(2.) There is no dispute about the facts of the case. On 11.04.2016, the Municipal Council-Akaltara issued an e-procurement tender notice inviting tenders for beautification of Gopiya Talab at Akaltara with total probable amount of contract was assessed at Rs. 27.16 lacs. Alongwith the tender, the tenderers were also required to submit documents in terms of condition No. 12 which reads as follows:

(3.) The Petitioner took part in this tender process, however, this tender process was cancelled. Thereafter, a fresh tender was invited on 22.07.2016 for the same project with the same estimated cost and with the same terms and conditions. The Petitioner participated in this tender process. There were 9 tenderers and out of them, the tender of 8 tenderers were technically rejected and therefore, the Petitioner was the sole technically qualified tenderer. However, instead of awarding the tender to the Petitioner, a fresh tender notice was issued on 24.09.2016. Though, the project remains the same, the cost remains the same, but the essential conditions with regard to qualification criteria i.e. experience as quoted hereinabove, was deleted and even in the documents to be filed now, the experience certificate, solvency certificate and affidavit of Engineer concerned were not required to be filed. The Petitioner did not take part in the last tender process but when the last tender process was just started, he approached this Court challenging the action of the Municipal Council-Akaltara, for floating this tender.