REPL LIMITED Vs. GAS AUTHORITY OF INDIA LIMITED

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The present petition is directed against the respondents and questions the legality and validity of the recommendations made by respondent No.2 to respondent No.1 to award the contract to respondent No.3 with consequential prayer to quash and set aside the same. Further direction is prayed against respondents 1 and 2 to appropriately evaluate the price bid of the petitioner and after going into the legality of the same to award the contract to the said petitioner, being the lowest qualified bidder. Respondent No. 1 is a company wholly owned by Union of India and is registered under the Companies Act and its main business is to generate and supply gas to various consumers. Respondent No.2 is also a Government company and its main objects include the providing of consultation services in the matter of engineering and procurement of equipments for the petroleum and oil gas industries. The said respondent has acted as consultant to respondent No.1 in the matter of issuance of a tender which is the subject matter of consideration in the present petition. Respondent No.3 is a company which, inter alia, along with other companies made a bid for contract with respondent No.1. The petitioner has alleged that respondents 1 and 2 are intending to award the contract to respondent No.3 in an illegal manner as respondent No.3 is not qualified for the same. The petitioner, on the other hand, is duly qualified and will have secured the contract but for the fact that the contract is proposed to be illegally awarded to respondent No.3.

(2.) The facts leading to filing of the present petition are that in the month of February, 1995, respondent No.l floated a tender bearing No.2986/T-15/94- 95/SKD/25, which was advertised and published in several leading newspapers. Pursuant to the said advertisement, the petitioner applied to respondent No.1 and obtained tender documents which were duly filled up and the petitioner submitted a bid along with a Bank Guarantee of Rs.30 lakhs for the proposed contract. A copy of the invitation for the bid, which forms part of the tender document, is filed as Annexure P1 to the writ petition. The material terms and conditions are annexed as Annexure P2. The relevant details for the proposed contract are stated in paragraphs 1.1, 1.2 and 1.3 in the bid documents which read as follows:

(3.) The estimated value of the work was Rs.21 Crores and the mode. of opening of bid was by way of open international competitive bidding under Asian Development Bank Financing Loan. Approximately 34 persons purchased the bid documents which were sold between the period February 13, 1995 to April 24, 1995 extended upto May 26, 1995. The date for pre-bid conference was March 14, 1995. The due date for submitting bids was 'May 1, 1995 extended upto June 15, 1995. Approximately 10 bids were received within the due date. The names of such bidders are given in the petition as follows: