PRITAM SINGH Vs. STATE OF PUNJAB

JUDGEMENT

(1.) M/s.Pritam Singh and Sons, a sale proprietory Concern under the sole proprietorship of Sh. Gujjit Singh has preferred the present Civil Writ Petition under Arts. 226/227 of the Constitution of India for issuance of directing to the respondents to give contract to the petitioner for construction of Tanda Side approach to high level bridge over river Beas at Sri Hargobindpur in District Hoshiarpur in District Hoshiarpur on the plea that the tender submitted by the petitioner was found to be lowest with a further prayer that the contract awarded to any other firm be quashed.

(2.) Before going to the merits of the case, it is noticed that during the pendency of the civil writ petition it had come on the record that M/s, Kartar Singh and Company was awarded the contract for the work in question on 22-3-1996 and consequently the said concern was impleaded as respondent No. 5 vide order dated 26-5-1996.

(3.) Skipping superfluities/facts giving rise to the controversy involved in this case are that the respondent No. 4 i.e. Executive Engineer, Central Works Division, P.W.D. (B and R), Hoshiarpur invited tenders for the above contract by issuing notices in various newspapers in the first week of Nov. 1995 for 24th Nov. 1995. It was made clear that blank tender forms would be issued only after the committee of Sub-Divisional Engineers evaluated each contractor regarding its capacity to undertake the work in question. The Committee consisting of S/ Sri K.S. Dhami and N.P. Singh examined the applications of the contractors and recommended four names after examining their capacity to perform the work. The firms which were recommended for issuance of blank tender forms are as under:-(i) M/s. Satish Aggarwal and Co. Mukerian(ii) M/s. Pritam Singh and Sons (sic).(iii) M/s. Kartar Singh, Sarabha Nagar, Ludhiana, (iv) M/s. Daljit Singh and brothers, Amritsar.All the four firms submitted their tenders and tender of the petitioner firm was found to be lowest as per the averments made in para 11 of the writ petition. The comparative cost offered by the contractors is as under :-(i) M/s. Satish Aggarwal and Co.2.46 crores(ii) M/s. Pritam Singh and Sons 2.03 crores(iii) M/s. Kartar Singh 2.18 crores(iv) M/s. Daljit Singh and brothers2.35 crores