SURYANARAYAN MOHANTY Vs. STATE OF ODISHA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Heard learned counsel for the petitioner, learned Additional Government Advocate for the State opposite parties and learned counsel for the opposite party No.5.

(2.) By way of this writ petition, petitioner has prayed for following relief:

(3.) The facts of the case of the petitioner in brief are that the Engineer-inChief, Rural Works Odisha, Bhubaneswar (O.P. No.2) invited National Competitive Bidding through e-procurement No. 12-2017-18 (Bridges) dated 16.3.2018 on percentage rate tender for the works through e-procurement i.e. for Construction of HL Bridge over River Kusei & Local Nallah at 1st KM & 1/500 km on Batto Panchupalli road in the district of Keonjhar with approximate estimated cost of Rs. 9,95,20,000/- under the RW Division, Anandpur. As per the said tender notice technical bid was fixed to be opened on 26.4.2018 and price bid thereafter. On 31.3.2018, O.P. No.2 issued corrigendum extending the tender schedule for availing the tender up to 2.5.2018 and the opening of technical bid to be held on 4.5.2018. The case of the petitioner is that he has submitted his bids having all eligibility within the time, along with documents including the Turn over Certificate and execution of similar nature of work like the present tender, issued by the Executive Engineer, RW Division, Keonjhar and RW Division, Bhadrak-I. On the basis of the same and calculating the amount received by the petitioner in applying the Escalation Factor as per the eligibility criteria of Clause 2.1 (4) & (5) and stipulation there under the petitioner have achieved Rs. 798.68 lacks against the requirement of execution of similar nature of work @ 75% of the estimated cost of the work put to tender which comes to Rs. 7.46 crores only. On 19.6.2018, the tender Evaluating Authorities evaluated the technical bid of the bidders and rejected the technical bid of the petitioner vide letter No. 16164 dated 19.6.2018 and uploaded the said in the web-site on 20.6.2018. The technical bid of the petitioner has been declared disqualified due to inadequate experience in execution of similar nature of works. The petitioner also represented to the authorities in this regard. However, on 20.6.2018, the price bid of the bidder namely M/s. H.L. Infrastructure and M/s. C.P. Mohanty & Associates were opened and uploaded in the web-site from which it is revealed that M/s. H.L. Infrastructure has been declared as L1 Bidder with offer of 5.52% less than the amount of estimated rate. Challenging the said action of the authorities, petitioner filed this writ petition on 25.6.2018.