DEEPALI DESIGN AND EXHIBITS P LTD Vs. UOI

JUDGEMENT

(1.) IN this petition for a writ of certiorari, the petitioners call in question the allotment of a contract on a turn-key basis for making boarding and lodging arrangements and for erection of a convention hall and making other related arrangements for a "convention of Presidents of Zila Parishads and panchayat Samitis" to be held in Burari grounds, Delhi from the 22nd to 24th april, 2008. The case of the petitioners, in brief, is that the award of the contract for making the aforementioned arrangements for a convention that is scheduled to host as many as 10,000 participants is illegal inasmuch as respondent No. 2 was ineligible in terms of the conditions of the tender notice to submit a tender. It is also the case of the petitioner that the respondents had committed an irregularity in entertaining a tender on behalf of a consortium of three different concerns as the tender notice in question did not envisage the submission of bids by consortia. The short question that falls for consideration in the above backdrop is whether respondent No. 2 was ineligible to submit a bid in its own right and if it was, whether the bid submitted by it as a member of the consortium of three different concerns was in order and was rightly accepted.

(2.) IN terms of a short term tender notice dated 29th February, 2008, the ministry of Panchayati Raj, Government of India invited sealed tenders comprising technical and financial bids from reputed service providers for making comprehensive arrangements for various facilities, event management and overall co-ordination on turn-key basis for 10,000 persons including their boarding, lodging and erection of a convention hall with simultaneous interpretation facilities in connection with "convention of Presidents of Zila parishads and Panchayat Samiti" at Burari Grounds, Delhi scheduled to be held between 22nd and 24th April, 2008. The tender notice inter alia stipulated the conditions of eligibility for the bidders which included an average annual turnover of Rs. 10. 00 crores or above for the past three years. Bidders were also required to submit an overall concept, layout, design and planning of the proposed event to the Ministry of Panchayati Raj. Three tenders, it appears, were received by respondent No. 1 in response to the said tender notice from the following three parties :

(3.) THE tenders were opened by the Tender Opening Committee constituted for the purpose who analysed the same and prepared a comparative statement, but eventually came to the conclusion that none of the bidders were technically qualified. The Committee all the same was of the opinion that keeping in view the time constraints, it was not possible to re-tender the contract. It, therefore, decided to place the matter before a High Level Technical Committee for affording to the tenderers an opportunity to make their representations before the said Committee pending fulfillment of the conditions stipulated in paras 2 and 3 of the tender document by some of them. The relevant portion of the recommendation made by the committee were as under: