ACTECH INFORMATION SYSTEMS LTD Vs. UNION OF INDIA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Judicial review of administrative decisions is limited to examining whether the decision making process is vitiated by any illegality, procedural irregularity or perversity. The Court does not sit in appeal over the decision so long as the process leading to the same is found to be satisfactory and free from anyone of the infirmities mentioned above. In cases where the decision making process involves technical expertise, the scope of review gets further reduced. That is because the courts are not equipped with the expertise necessary to sit in judgment over the decisions taken by experts. The process of review shows deference to the opinions of the experts. The legal position on the subject is settled by a long line of decisions rendered by the Supreme Court to which we shall presently refer, but before we do so, we need to briefly set out the facts in the backdrop whereof the petitioner challenges the rejection of the technical bid offered by it for a certain scientific equipment being purchased by the respondents. What is however significant and may be stated at the threshold is that the rejection of the petitioner's technical bid is based entirely on the opinion of the experts according to whom the equipment offered by the petitioner did not satisfy the technical requirements stipulated in the request for proposal (RFP for short). The petitioner however contends that the said rejection was unfair inasmuch as while the Experts Committee had granted an opportunity to other bidders to make up the deficiencies in the equipment offered by them, no such opportunity was given to the petitioner. This, according to the petitioner, led to discrimination between parties that were similarly circumstanced and hence entitled to similar treatment. The respondents deny that allegation and urge that the evaluation of the technical bids submitted by the intending suppliers was undertaken by an Expert Committee which had adopted an objective standard that was applied uniformly to all the bidders. Inasmuch as the Committee had found that the petitioner's bid was not technically compliant on account of the 'Data Logger' offered by it being not up to the required specifications, it committed no mistake leave alone an error bordering on perversity to warrant interference by this Court. It is also contended that the 'Data Logger' offered by the petitioner was upon a proper evaluation, found to be unacceptable in terms of the requirements of the RFP which fact was admitted even by the petitioner in a communication dated 27th December, 2007 addressed after the technical evaluation of the bid whereby it had offered to remove the deficiencies in the machines it was selling. That belated offer was not however acceptable to the respondents who were proceeding under a time schedule for the supplies in question. In the circumstances, the rejection of the bid on the ground of non-compliance of the essential requirements of the RFP could not be described as illegal, irregular or in any way perverse. Time now to state a few facts.

(2.) Indian Meteorological Department (IMD for short) is operating a network of 125 Automatic Weather Stations (AWS for short) under what is described as Pseudo Random Burst Sequence (PRBS), technique of transmission through the Data Relay Transponder (DRT) of Kalpana-I satellite. These AWS are also compatible to INSAT series of satellites. In PRBS mode of transmission, satellite Data Relay Transponder (DRT) has a capacity to accommodate only 400 AWS in the present carrier slot of 402.75 Mhz. This carrier is, according to the Government, being utilized by various users like the Government of Andhra Pradesh, Central Water Commission (CWC), Snow and Avalanche Studies Establishment (SASE) including IMD is already saturated. No additional allocation is said to be possible to this system. In order however to accommodate more number of AWS, the respondents proposed to switch over to what is described as Time Division Multiple Access (TDMA) type of transmission technique. This switch over is possible in view of the current scientific and technical developments in the field of operational forecasting which most of the developed countries have adopted. The Government therefore appears to have taken a decision to utilize this new technique for all future AWS to facilitate installation and data reception from more number of AWS. A modernization plan for commissioning of 550 AWS has accordingly been drawn up by the Government based on a feasibility report prepared by the IMD.

(3.) With the approval of the above project by the Government, a request for proposal (RFP) document was prepared and issued for procurement of the equipment for the automatic weather stations and one TDMA type data receiving earth station. A global tender enquiry was accordingly floated in July, 2007 which stipulated 20th September, 2007 as the cut off date for submission of the bids.