KARIX MOBILE PRIVATE LIMITED Vs. UNION OF INDIA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Present writ petition has been filed under Article 226 of the Constitution of India, 1950, inter alia, seeking the following prayers:-

(2.) Mr. Jayant Mehta and Mr. Shashank Garg, learned Senior Counsels appearing for the Petitioner submitted that the petitioner had bid for the Tender floated by the respondent no.2/Government E-marketPlace (hereinafter referred as 'GeM') for selection of bidder to provide SMS Gateway Services and Missed Call/SMS banking for delivery of SMS for India Post Payments Bank (hereinafter referred as 'IPPB/respondent no. 3') (under OPEX model) vide the Notice Inviting Tender/Request For Proposal dtd. 7/6/2024. The technical bid of the petitioner was duly accepted by the respondent no.2/GeM on 13/8/2024 and the learned senior counsel submitted that it is undisputed that the petitioner and respondent no.4/ACL Mobile Private Limited both were technically qualified and had entered into the Reverse Auction process.

(3.) Learned senior counsel for the petitioner submitted that it was during the Reverse Auction process when petitioner had faced technical glitch where it was not able to enter/modify the next lower bid in the Reverse Auction process and the portal was not accepting the figures and the save/submit button was unresponsive. He submitted that the petitioner had immediately raised the ticket with the respondent no.2/GeM portal for resolution of the glitch it faced. However, despite lodging the dispute and ticket having been generated, the GeM portal team did not assist the petitioner in resolving the glitch and ultimately it was forcibly kept out of the Reverse Auction process.