IMPORTANT POINT
Writ Court would not be justified in interfering with commercial transactions in which the State is one of the parties to the same except where there is substantial public interest involved and in cases where the transaction is mala fide.

JUDGMENT

T.S. Thakur, J.-Leave granted.

2. This appeal arises out of an order passed by the High Court of Madhya Pradesh at Indore whereby Writ Petition No.3427 of 2011 filed by the appellant was dismissed and the allotment of the project work involving design, construction and commissioning of a single integrated water supply at Sendhwa (Madhya Pradesh) in favour of M/s P.C. Snehal Construction Company-respondent No.2 upheld.

3. In terms of notice inviting tenders (NIT for short) Municipal Council Sendhwa, in the State of M.P., invited tenders from eligible contractors for the construction of an Integrated Water Supply Scheme at an estimated cost of nearly rupees twenty crores. Clause (1) of the said NIT as amended by addendum dated 23rd March, 2011, stipulated the following essential conditions of eligibility for the intending bidders:

“1. Registered Contractors have to produce valid Registration certificate in the category of S-V or equivalent in any State/Central Government Department or Government undertaking.

(a) Registered Contractors/Firms of Repute/Joint Venture firms have to produce certificate for executing single work of integrated water supply scheme comprising of intake well, raw/clear water pumping main, pumps, OHTS, Distribution system completed and running successfully at present, having value equal to 60% of the cost of the proposed works in last 5 years. This certificate should clearly mention amount of contract, completion period as per Tender and actual completion period. (In case of WPI adjustment for cost of works the same may be furnished along with a certificate of Chartered Accountant). The certificate shall be issued from the officer not below the rank of Executive Engineer or equivalent.

(b) Certified copy of audited balance sheet of last 5 years showing annual turnover equal to estimated cost of the work and average net worth equal to 40% of the cost of works.”

4. In response to the above NIT several applications were received by respondent No.1 for purchase of the tender forms. It is common ground that only six out of the said applicants eventually participated in the pre-bid meeting arranged by respondent No.1. It is also not in dispute that out of the said six bidders only four were eventually found to be eligible. These four included the appellant-Tejas Construction & Infrastructure Pvt. Ltd. and respondent No.2-M/s P.C. Snehal Construction Company, Ahmedabad.

5. The tender conditions, inter alia, provided that the bid documents shall comprise three envelopes to be submitted by each of the bidders. Envelope A was to contain the earnest money deposited, Envelope B was to contain the technical bid including qualification documents while Envelope C was to contain the price bid of the bidders. The process of evaluation of the bids started on 7th April, 2011 with the opening of envelopes in the above order. Opening of envelope A was uneventful as all the bidders had furnished the earnest money stipulated under the terms of NIT. The appellant’s case, however, is that when envelope B was opened a request was made to respondent No.1 to show the technical bid received from respondent No.2 which request was granted. The appellant’s further case is that upon perusal of the technical bid of respondent No.2, the appellant had raised an objection as to the eligibility of the said to participate in the bid process on the ground that it did not have the requisite experience of executing a single integrated water supply scheme of the requisite value. Respondent No.2 is said to have claimed eligibility to offer a bid on the basis of clubbing of different water supply scheme projects at Vyara and Songadh which was impermissible according to the appellant. The appellant also raised an objection to the effect that respondent No.2 had not submitted certified copies of audited balance-sheets for the last five years and that the net-worth certificate produced from a Chartered Accountant for the financial year 201