ITD CEMENTATION INDIA LIMITED Vs. UNION OF INDIA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This writ petition under Article 226 of the Constitution of India is filed by the petitioner-company, which is incorporated under the Companies Act, 1956 and Corresponding Companies Act, 2013, through its power of attorney holder challenging the action of the respondent Central Public Works Department (for short 'the CPWD' hereinafter), whereby it has disqualified the petitioner-company vide letter dated 25.04.2017 (Annexure-1) from the bidding process pursuant to NIT (Annexure-3) issued by it.

(2.) Facts, which are not in dispute, are that the respondent- CPWD has floated an NIT (Annexure-3) for construction of various buildings works at Permanent Campus of IIT, Jodhpur (Phase-2) at Karwar, NH-65, Jodhpur, Rajasthah, description of which is provided in the bid document. Initially the last date for submission of tenders, EMD, e-tender, processing fee and other documents was fixed as 13.02.2017 up to 3:00 P.M. and date of opening technical bid was fixed at 3:30 P.M. on 13.02.2017, however, later on the same was extended up to 02.03.2017, which is evident from the minutes of the Pre-tender Conference shown to the court and not disputed by the petitioner. The petitioner submitted its bid pursuant to the aforesaid tender. Along with the bid, the petitioner had also submitted earnest money, part in the form of fixed deposit receipt and part in bank guarantee issued by the Bank of Maharashtra. The technical bids were opened on 02.03.2017. As per the case of the petitioner it had inadvertently mentioned the name of Executive Engineer of different Division of CPWD, Jodhpur in the bank guarantee and a rectification in the said name was immediately done and amended bank guarantee was submitted to the CPWD on 08.03.2017.

(3.) On 18.03.2017 vide Annexure-6, the respondent-CPWD wrote a letter to the petitioner, wherein it is mentioned that during scrutiny of initial eligibility criterion, certain discrepancies have been noticed in the document submitted by it and a request was made to provide clarification in detail in respect of the discrepancies noticed by 31.03.2017 up to 5:00 P.M. In the said letter, apart from other discrepancy, it has been mentioned that initially the bank guarantee, which was issued in favour of Executive Engineer, ITI Project Division-I CPWD, is submitted, however, subsequently, amended bank guarantee has been submitted, which is issued in favour of Executive Engineer, Jodhpur CPWD and the same has been taken on record, however, the decision on eligibility shall be taken by the competent authority as per prescribed guidelines/procedure. The petitioner has submitted reply to the said notice answering the queries raised by the CPWD on 18.03.2017. A copy of the reply dated 24.03.2017 is placed on record as Annexure-7.