MAA MANASHA PRINTERS Vs. STATE OF ASSAM

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Heard Mr. J. Roy, learned counsel for the petitioner and Mr. D. Saikia, learned Senior Standing Counsel, Agriculture Department, assisted by Mr. B. Choudhury, learned Standing Counsel, Agriculture Department for the respondents.

(2.) The petitioner before this Court is the sole Proprietor of a registered firm under the name and style 'M/s Maa Manasha Printers' and engaged in the business of executing various types of printing and supply works under the Government and Semi-Government Department of the State as well as the Central Government. The Directorate of Agriculture Department, Government of Assam invited Expression Of Interest (EOI) for empanelment of firms for publicity works under the Directorate vide EOI No. Agri/Info/Tender-352/2018- 2019/24/179 dated 08.07.2019 providing that the time period for downloading the EOI will be from 2:00 p.m. of 10.07.2019 and the last date and time for submission of EOI will be 31.07.2019 at 3:00 p.m. Interested bidders were required to download the tender documents from the website as per schedule given in Section-1 of the Critical Data Sheet. Group wise proposal should comprise a technical offer only in a properly sealed and signed enveloped and deposited in the Tender Box. The technical offer was to be opened on 31.07.2019 at 3:00 p.m. in the Office of the Assistant Director of Agriculture and it was to be evaluated based on the qualification of the offers and presentation. It was further provided that only offers found to be fit and responsive will be considered from Group wise empanelment of the firms. The scope of the work in the EOI and evaluation criteria were provided under Section-VII (Group A & B) and Section-VIII of the EOI.

(3.) The petitioner being interested purchased/downloaded the tender documents and after carefully going through the same, decided to participate under Group-A and accordingly, submitted the tender. To the knowledge of the petitioner, altogether 15 firms participated for Group-A while 5 firms participate for Group-B. As per the EOI, the minimum marks fixed as the Bench Mark for qualifying in the technical bid was 70 marks and from where, 80% weightage will be given towards the technical score. As regards the financial score, 20% weightage will be given and the participating bidders will be selected for awarding the contract.