ECOS ENGINEERS Vs. NUMALIGARH REFINERY LTD

JUDGEMENT

(1.) PURSUANT to a Notice Inviting Tender (in short, 'the NIT') issued on 23. 02. 2008 by the respondent No. 1 namely, Numaligarh Refinery Ltd. (in short, 'nrl'), for execution of works which had been grouped as Group I namely, operation and maintenance of NRL owned cranes/equipments and Group II namely, for operation and maintenance of 7 T Grab Crane and Excavator, the petitioner, who had been working as a contractor with the respondent No. 1, submitted its tender. The selection and allotment of the said contract works consisted of two-bid system, namely, (i) technical bid and (ii) price bid. The technical bids, which had been submitted in respect of the said contract works, were opened on 18. 03. 2008 and, in course of time, having found the petitioner herein and one more tenderer, namely, M/s Nishant Enterprises, eligible in respect of works tendered under Group I, and having also found the petitioner herein and two others, namely, M/s Nishant Enterprises and M/s B. K. Traders, eligible in respect of Group II works, the respondent No. 1 fixed, 06. 05. 2008, as the date for opening of the price bids. The price bids were, however, not opened and instead, an NIT was published afresh, on 27. 06. 2008, fixing 10. 07. 2008 as the last date of submission for the bids.

(2.) BY making this writ application under Article 226 of the Constitution of India, the petitioner has put to challenge the decision, taken by the NRL, not to open the price bids, which were to be opened on 06. 05. 2008, and also abandoning altogether the process of selection, which had been initiated by the NRL by the earlier NIT, dated 23. 02. 2008, and, instead, inviting fresh tender by publishing the NIT, dated 27. 06. 2008.

(3.) THE principal questions, which fall for determination, in this writ petition, are :