AKA LOGISTIC PVT LTD Vs. DURGAPUR PROJECTS LIMITED

JUDGEMENT

(1.) In these two writ petitions, the two petitioners have questioned the propriety and legality of certain terms and conditions of a tender notice dated February 23, 2012 issued by the Durgapur Projects Limited (hereafter D. P. L. ) and have prayed for diverse relief. Although reliefs claimed by the two petitioners are at variance but since terms and conditions of a common invitation to tender are under challenge, I propose to dispose of these writ petitions by this common judgment and order.

(2.) D. P. L. intended to appoint an agent for handling coal for a period of three years. Sealed bids were, accordingly, invited from prospective bidders for liaisioning, supervision & materialisation of quantity and quality control of raw coal rakes (hereafter the subject job). The scope of work included quantity materialisation, quality control, loading supervision, shortage minimisation, assistance for coal sampling at loading point, monitoring and liaisoning with the railways for the movements of coal rakes of indigenous coal from the different collieries of Eastern Coalfields Limited, Mahanadi Coalfields Limited and Bharat Coking Coal Limited to the power station of D. P. L. The prospective bidders were required to submit the required documents in four sealed covers, with Covers-I & II containing documents relating to 'earnest money deposit' and 'qualifying requirements' respectively, Cover-III containing documents relating to 'techno-commercial bid' and Cover-IV containing 'price bid' documents.

(3.) Qualifying requirements were indicated against clause 2 under volume-III of the tender documents titled Techno Commercial Specifications. Clause 2 reads as under: