GAUTAM BUILDERS Vs. UNION OF TERRITORY

JUDGEMENT

(1.) WHETHER pre-qualification conditions laid down by the Chandigarh Administration for award of contract of building works of Government Medical College and Hospital, Sector 32, Chandigarh are ultra vires to the doctrine of equality and whether non-consideration/rejection of the applications submitted by the petitioners in C.W.P. No. 13956 of 1998 in response to the notices Annexures P.2 to P.4 is vitiated by arbitrariness and is violative of their fundamental right to equality guaranteed under Article 14 of the Constitution of India are the questions which arise for determination in these petitions, one of which has been filed by the contractors and the other has been filed by Shri Rajiv Sharma in the name of Public Interest Litigation.

(2.) THE facts : Petitioners-M/s Gutam Builders, M/s Abhinandan Constructions, M/s Sandeep and Company, M/s Ram Lal Garg and Company, M/s Surindera Builders, M/s Mounton Fabricators and Engineers, M/s Forward Builders, M/s Hans Raj Kohli and Company and M/s Sant Builders and Engineers who have jointly filed this petition are registered as 'A' class contractors with the Civil Wing of Capital Project, Union Territory, Chandigarh. Most of them gave pre- qualification bids in response to the notices Annexures P.2 to P.4 issued by the Executive Engineer, C.P. Division No. 5, Chandigarh for execution of different works for Blocks 'C' and 'D' of Government Medical College and Hospital, Chandigarh. A number of other contractors also gave their bids for award of different contracts. All the applications were considered by a Committee constituted by the Adviser to the Administrator, Union Territory, Chandigarh and after taking into consideration the financial capability of the applicants, past performance, experience of executing similar works and the factors like pendency of vigilance enquiries etc., the Committee finalised the list of contractors who were pre-qualified for participating in the tenders. The particulars of the works for which pre-qualification bids were invited, the number of the contractors who filed their bids and the number of those who pre-qualified are as under :

(3.) THE petitioners have challenged the conditions of pre-qualification and the exercise undertaken by the Committee constituted by the Chandigarh Administration on the ground that the conditions laid down by the Administration are highly irrational and arbitrary and that a deliberate attempt has been made to reduce the number of the applicants with the avowed object of awarding contracts only to those whom the Administration wanted to favour. In the replication filed by them, it has been averred that in the advertisement/notice issued inviting pre-qualification bids for construction of Block 'C' (finishing items), Phases I, II, III and IV, the estimated cost was mentioned as Rs. 1,56,00,000/-, Rs. 2,16,00,000/-, Rs. 2,28,00,000/- and Rs. 2,41,00,000/- respectively with a condition that the prospective contractors should have completed two works of similar nature having magnitude of Rs. 63,00,000/-, Rs. 87,00,000/-, Rs. 92,00,000/- and Rs. 99,66,000/-, but in the main tender notices the amount of costs were reduced to Rs. 1,35,00,000/-, Rs. 1,58,00,000/- Rs. 1,65,00,000/- and Rs. 1,60,00,000/- with the sole object of excluding a large number of contractors at the stage of pre-qualification. They have further averred that very high estimated costs were showm in the pre-qualification notices with a view to exclude genuine contractors. Still further, they have averred that those who were recommended by the Executive Engineer were ignored/disqualified by the Committee without assigning any reason and those who were not recommended by the Executive Engineer were declared as pre-qualified due to extraneous reasons. According to the petitioners, some of them could not apply for pre-qualification on account of the arbitrary conditions incorporated in the notices Annexures P.2 to P.4 and this should be treated as sufficient for quashing of the impugned notices.