S. A. BOBDE, J:- Rule. Rule returnable forthwith. Heard finally by consent of the parties.

2. In Mapusa, the Government of Goa has constructed a 290 bedded modern District Hospital (Hereinafter referred to as the "said Hospital") through the Goa State Infrastructure Development Corporation.

3. On 04.05.2011, the respondent no.2-Secretary, Health Department, published a notice inviting tender or a request for proposal for development, operation and management of the said Hospital on Public Private Partnership (PPP) basis. Eight prospective bidders participated in the pre-bid meeting. Eventually, only three of the eight bidders submitted their offers. They were Apollo Hospitals, Chennai, Shalby Limited, Ahmedabad (the petitioner) and Radiant Life Care Ltd., New Delhi (the respondent no.3). These three got qualified at "Response to Pre3 Qualification" (part-I). On 27.05.2011, the aforesaid bidders qualified at the Technical Offers (Part-II). The scores obtained by the three bidders were as follows;

Apollo Hospital, Chennai : 76.05,

Radiant Life Care Pvt. Ltd. : 89.20, and

Shalby Limited, Ahmedabad: 77.95.

4. On 02.06.2011, the financial offers were opened in presence of the Joint Secretary of the Department of Health, Director of Health Services, Government of Goa and the representatives of the three bidders and ICRA Management Consulting Services Ltd. i.e. the Consultant appointed by respondent no.2. The respondents-State had asked, inter alia, the bidders to quote annuity grant i.e. the amount that would be payable by the Government or receivable by the Government. If the Government was to pay a certain amount, it was to be considered as a positive annuity grant and if the bidder was to pay a certain amount, it was to be considered as a negative annuity grant. The Financial Proposals were to be evaluated on the basis of the Annuity Grants, positive or negative and bidders were to be selected on that basis vide clauses 5.5.2, 5.5.5 and 5.5.6 of the RFP, which read as follows:

"5.5 Evaluation-Part III-Financial Offer:

5.5.1 ..... 5.5.2 Part III- Financial Proposal of all the Bidders would be evaluated on the basis of the Positive or Negative annuity Grant (quoted in INR per year) for the project and the accompanying supporting information regarding assumptions underlying the Financial Quite.

5.5.3 .....

5.5.4. .....

5.5.5 The Financial Proposals would then ranked in ascending order of the validated Annuity Grant.

5.5.6. The Bidder ranked first in accordance with the above procedure would be declared as the Preferred Bidder as evidenced by the issue of Letter of Intent described in section 5.6"

After the preferred bidder had complied with certain conditions like the formation of an SPV and submission of a Performance Guarantee, the Authority was to issue a Letter of Award and the preferred bidder was to execute a Concession Agreement with the Authority vide Clause 5.8.4 of the RFP.

5. The Apollo Hospital, Chennai quoted a positive annuity grant of Rs. 500,00,00,000/- for concession period of 20 years. Radiant Life Care, New Delhi-respondent no.3 quoted a positive annuity grant of Rs. 39,40,00,000/- for the concession period of 20 years. The petitioner's bid did not contain a figure of either a positive or a negative annuity grant and according to the petitioner, was a "Nil Bid". The final quotation of the petitioner reads as follows :

Project Name Amount (INR)

In Figures In Words

Equip, Operate,

Maintain and Manage

the 290 Bed Mapusa ** **

Hospital, Goa for 20

years timeframe.

** The company is required to invest in capital expenditure of about Rs. 40 Crores (Forty Crores including working capital, equipment and infrastructure requirements as per IPHS norms which is mandatory as per list given and other equipments & infrastructure upgrade requirement not available in your list provided and which is required as per NABH norms) and we have to further invest in day to day operations of the hospital. We do not demand any subsidy from the Govt.