RAMESH RANGANATHAN, J.

1. The appellants herein are petitioners 1 and 2 in WP No. 33695 of 2017. They, alongwith respondent Nos. 6 and 7 herein, invoked the jurisdiction of this Court seeking a writ of mandamus to declare the action of the 2nd respondent-Transmission Corporation of Andhra Pradesh (hereinafter called "A.P. TRANSCO") in issuing the EPC Works Tender bearing ID No. 119074 announced vide BFB/Tender Notice No. APT-e-05/2017, including conditions tailor-made to qualify only the fourth respondent-LS Cable India Pvt. Ltd., as illegal, arbitrary and unconstitutional; to set aside the said EPC work tender; to restrain the respondents from procuring the EPC work through the subject Tender; direct the respondents not to give effect to, or take further steps pursuant to, the said Tender; to direct the respondents to place on record the official records pertaining to the subject tender; and consequently, after retrieving the said records, to set aside/quash the decision of the respondents in setting out the qualification requirement as mentioned in the subject tender; and to direct the respondents to cancel the bids received pursuant to the subject tender. The parties to this appeal shall, hereinafter, be referred to as they are arrayed in the writ petition. The petitioners claim to be dominant market players engaged in the manufacture, supply and laying of power cables in the power transmission and distribution industry, and to have been manufacturing and supplying extra high voltage cables of upto 220 KV for the last seven years, including underground cable systems on turnkey basis. They invoked the jurisdiction of this Court contending that the qualification requirements (for short the "QRs") set out in the tender notification are wholly arbitrary, irrational, more stringent than the actual requirement for execution of the tender, and tailor-made to suit only the bid of the 4th respondent.

2. The 2nd respondent invited tenders, on its e-procurement platform, for supply, laying, testing and commissioning of 220 KV 1000 Sq.mm XLPE underground (U/G) copper cable, with associated accessories including services, for jointing, terminations, site testing and commissioning the complete cable system for diversion of 220 KV lines, which were passing across the Seed Capital Region (at Amaravathi in Guntur District) on a turnkey basis. Originally, the work notified, under the above said Tender Notice, was for 220 KV and 132 KV EHT lines diversion. However by way of a corrigendum, issued to the above mentioned Tender Notice on 19.9.2017, the work relating to laying of 132 KV EHT lines was deleted, and the Estimated Contract Value (ECV) was reduced from Rs. 670.74 crores to Rs. 544.24 crores.

3. Tenders were invited on the e-procurement platform, and the notification inviting tenders was published in the newspapers on 29.4.2017. The bid documents were allowed to be downloaded from the e-procurement platform on 4.5.2017, and the last date for submission of bids was originally stipulated as 2.6.2017. At the request of the bidders, from time to time, the last date for submission of bids was extended till 30.10.2017. A pre-bid meeting was held on 18.5.2017 wherein several bidders raised queries regarding various technical aspects, and on the qualification requirements. The 2nd respondent furnished its reply to all these queries by 20.9.2017. Even before the extended last date for submission of bids expired on 30.10.2017, the appellants herein, alongwith respondents 6 and 7, filed WP No. 33695 of 2017 before this Court on 9.10.2017. While the 2nd respondent filed its counter-affidavit on 24.10.2017, an interim order was passed on the same day recording the agreement of both Counsel that the tender process may go on, but the price bids shall not be opened after scrutinizing the technical bids, and shall be submitted to the Court for verifying the allegations. Thereafter, the pre-qualification bids (technical bids) were opened on 31.10.2