These petitions are filed by the transport contractors. They have called into question the letter of intent issued to the respondent Nos.6 and 7 for transporting Bharath Petroleum Corporation Limited (BPCL) packed LPG cylinders. It is their case that they have been transporting the packed LPG cylinders to various destinations for nearly 21 years and without any black mark on their transport service.

2. Sri Vivek Reddy, the learned Senior Counsel appearing for Sri Mudit Kundila for the petitioners submits that the tender process adopted by the official respondents is illegal, arbitrary and opposed to the principle of natural justice. He submits that the respondent Nos.6 and 7 were permitted to offer additional trucks. He submits that what the official respondents have done amounts to colourable exercise of power. He submits that once the negotiations in the tender process take place, the finality has to be marked about the proceedings.

3. He complains of the violations of the provisions of the tender notification. He read out Clause 42 g), j), portion below j) and clause 3f, General Instructions 8 and 9 of the tender notification.

"42. Evaluation criteria/method and general guideline for allocation of job:

(g) If the above process still results in not meeting the Corporation's full requirement of trucks, then negotiations/counter-ofter exercise may be conducted with the balance parties in their original order of ranking till the full requirement of trucks is met.

(i) The contract will be awarded in the proportion of availability of trucks from the transports after considering the allotment of trucks as per ranking in the slabs. Notwithstanding anything contained elsewhere in this tender in the event that Corporation received the same rate for a particular slab/distance slab W.R.T. any source/loading base by a group of bidders, the Corporation reserves the right to believe that these bidders have formed a cartel and the rate quoted as ' cartel rate- and may accept or reject or not reckon such rates/offered trucks/rankings etc., of such offers. In such cases, the Corporation also reserves the rights to follow the negotiation process with such bidders if deemed fit and amend the evaluation criteria best suited to the interest of the Corporations.

3. Ownership of Truck offered by Tenderers:

(f) Proposed Category - Prospective transporters who wish to enter into transportation job of LPG cylinders and presently do not own any truck at the time of floating of the tender, can participate in the tender under ' Proposed Category- with the following conditions.

Their offer will be limited to maximum of two proposed owned trucks.

The EMD for the proposed category would be Rs.2,00,000/- (Rupees two lakhs only).

The truck shall conform to all statutory requirements & BPCL safety norms.

The truck should bear the registration in the name of the tenderer or prospective transporters.

Within 45 days of issuance of LOI, they will own a truck and produce the same for physical verification.

Bidder cannot offer proposed & existing truck together under this category.

8. Submission for Bids :- Bid along with all the requisite copies of documents as mentioned in Annexure-A should be uploaded in the e-tendering platform. Balance documents as mentioned in check list (Pro forma II) to be submitted in hard copies along with EMD (DD/Pay Order) at the office as per the address mentioned in clause No.13 of General Terms and Condition of Tender.

9. Vendors are advised in their own interest to ensure that their bids are submitted in e-Procurement system well before the closing date and time of bid. If the vendor intends to change/revise the bid already submitted, they shall have to withdraw their bid already submitted, change/revise the bid and submit once again. In case vendor is not able to complete the submission of the changed/revised bid within due date & time, the system would consider it as no bid has been received from the vendor against the tender and conseque