1. The appellant, an unsuccessful bidder, filed the Writ Petition No. 14847/2018, which was dismissed by the Writ Court vide its order dated 27.8.2018. The appellant petitioner filed this writ petition for issuance of a writ of mandamus to the Rail Wheel Factory, Indian Railways the respondent No. 2 to include and consider the appellant-petitioner's' bid in respect of Tender No. 201710849. The appellant also prayed for an alternative relief of declaration that the tender proceedings under Tender No. 201710849 are illegal, and for issuance of a writ of mandamus directing the respondent No. 2 to reissue fresh tender for the supplies in respect of which bids were invited under Tender No. 201710849.

2. Briefly the facts of the case are that on 21.2.2018, the respondent No. 2 issued a tender notification in Tender No. 201710849 inviting online bids for supply of 'Round Corner Square Steel Blooms' of various sizes. The interested participants were called upon to submit their respective bids online via an IT application known as Indian Railways E-Procurement System (for short 'IREPS') developed and maintained by Center for Railway Information Systems (for short 'CRIS') a Society incorporated by the Ministry of Railways. It was inter-alia notified that the closing date and time for receipt of bids would be fixed as 2.4.2018 at 14:15 hours.

3. It is the appellant's case that the appellant has been regularly supplying specific products to the respondent No. 2. The appellant has been participating in different tender auctions conducted by the respondent No. 2 from 1989 onwards. The appellant has set up a manufacturing facility in an extent of 92.31 acres of land at Khopoli, Maharashtra investing over Rs. 500 crores and employing about 2000 workmen. The appellant participated in the bid because it possessed the requisite technical capabilities to enter into contract for supply of the tendered goods. The appellant effected the transfer of EMD on 30.3.2018, and commenced uploading the other details on 2.4.2018 at about 9:30 hours. The appellant could not quickly upload the necessary details because the server of the respondent No. 2 was responding slowly. The appellant completed uploading the financial offer, the penultimate stage of the bid submission process, at 11:31 hours. The only other process to be completed by the appellant was to check the relevant Box on the Website of the respondent No. 2 to confirm acceptance of the declaration and click the submit button on such website. The appellant could check the Box for confirmation of acceptance of the declaration only at 1:01 hours as the server of the respondent No. 2 continued to respond slowly. The appellant also clicked on the submit button. As such, the submit button turned from black to grey.

4. However, the server of the respondent No. 2 did not respond because of an encryption error which could not be attributed to the appellant. The appellant contacted CRIS over the telephone, and informed that the appellant had not received the acknowledgement message for submission of its bid. CRIS informed the appellant that because the appellant had clicked on 'Encrypt and Submit' hyperlink, the appellant could rest assured that its bid had been submitted and necessary acknowledgement message would be received over some time. When the appellant did not receive such acknowledgement message, on 2.4.2018, the appellant submitted a physical copy of its bid in a sealed envelope. The appellant communicated to the respondent No. 2 over email about non-receipt of submission acknowledgement message and filing of a physical copy of the bid in a sealed envelope. The appellant was later orally informed by the respondent No. 2 that the appellant's bid was not being considered as it was not duly submitted. Therefore, the appellant filed the writ petition for the relief/s enumerated above.

5. The Union of India (respondent No. 1) and respondent No. 2 were notified of the writ petition. These responde