MAHADEV ENCLAVE PVT LTD Vs. STATE OF BIHAR

JUDGEMENT

(1.) BY these three writ petitions, the petitioner has sought indulgence of this Court for a direction to the respondent State and its authorities to proceed with petitioners technical bid and financial bid, as submitted by him, in respect of Patna, Banka and Arwal. The three writ petitions are in relation to each of these three places. The bids were called by the State for settlement of mining rights of sand from the river beds.

(2.) HEARD Mr. S.D. Sanjay, learned Senior Counsel for the petitioner in all the three writ petitions and Mr. D.K. Sinha, learned Senior Counsel for the Department of Mines, Government of Bihar and with their consent these writ petitions are being disposed of at this stage itself.

(3.) THE problem that beset the petitioner in respect of three places for which he had applied, i.e., Patna, Banka and Arwal is common. As noted above, envelop A has to contain Part - A documents, i.e., the technical bid document. Petitioner had got prepared the bank drafts as was required. They being of Rs.8.80 crores in respect of Patna, Rs.61 lakhs in respect of Arwal and Rs.9.49 lakhs in respect of Banka in favour of the District Mining Officer of the respective districts, as required by the NIT. In respect of each of these three drafts he had got certificate from the bank giving particulars of the bank draft amount and the certificate that it was prepared out of money standing in the account of the tenderer. While sealing the envelops due to clerical mistake the certificate from the bank was enclosed with the technical bid which clearly show the amount of draft and other particulars Thinking that so far as money is concerned that would be concerned in the financial bid, which is Part -B of the tender, the draft was enclosed along with Part -B documents in envelop B. Thus, envelop A would disclose the amount of draft, the certificate of the bank and the particulars of the draft, whereas the draft was enclosed in envelop B. Accordingly, when the technical bids were opened on 19.12.2013 for Patna and Banka the earnest money draft not having been found in envelop A, though the bank certificate was found, petitioners technical bid in respect of Patna and Banka stood rejected. So far as Arwal is concerned, the technical bid had not been opened on the scheduled day.