The judgment establishes the need for human intervention in exceptional circumstances and the protection of bidders' rights in the digital world, emphasizing the importance of ensuring effective solutions in the e-tendering process.

Bharati H. Dangre, J.

1. Rule.

2. Heard the matter finally by consent of the parties at the stage of admission.

3. Respondent No.2Maharashtra Housing Development Authority, through its Chief Officer, issued e-Tender notice inviting proposals for the work of “Technical designing, co-Borey ordination and construction for rehabilitation/sale/commercial/amenities alongwith construction of habitable temporary transit camps and other various works in respect of redevelopment project”. The bidders were to submit their bids in a single stage, two e-envelops e-tendering process. The first e-envelope/the technical bid was to be evaluated to ensure technical and financial qualification and was to contain the documents of eligibility, depicting technical and financial capacity of the bidder including the other documents. Envelope no. 2 was to contain the financial bid in the format prescribed. The bidding companies were to comply experiences and required conditions mentioned in RFQ cum RFP document. The time limit for the said project was prescribed as 96 calendar months and the bid security/EMD in the form of the demand draft or bank guarantee was to be submitted for each project site with value of INR 54,00,00,000/-.

4. The bid document was to be down loaded from the e-tender website ww.mahatenders.gov.in from 3rd April, 2017 to 17th May, 2017 and the bidders were advised to refer to bidders' manual kit available at http://mahatenders.gov.in for details about e-tender process to be followed. The last date of the submission of the On-Line bid was scheduled as 17th May, 2017 which was extended from time to time and lastly it was fixed as 27th July, 2017 at 13.00 hours IST.

5. Petitioner No.1 is a company incorporated under the Companies Act, engaged in the business of executing construction, redevelopment and infrastructure projects and it claims to pose vast experience, including the construction and redevelopment project in the city of Mumbai. In furtherance of the e-tender notice issued by Respondent No.2, the petitioner no. 1 company, being desirous of participating in the tender process, raised certain pre-bid queries and uploaded its technical and financial bid on 27th July, 2017 at about 12.16 hrs on e-procurement system on the website of respondent no.1www. mahatenders.gov.in. The Petitioners relies upon a screen shot on the bid sreen, confirming such uploading on date of submission to demonstrate that their envelope nos. 1 and 2 were duly uploaded on the schedule date and before the scheduled time prescribed. According to the petitioners, the bid documents were admittedly uploaded on the e-portal, however, the freeze bid button was not logged or recorded in the respondents' system, as a result, the petitioners could not get any acknowledgement. As per tender conditions, a bank guarantee equivalent to 5% of the contract value i.e. Rs. 50 crorers was also submitted by the petitioners in the office of second Respondent, which is still lying with the second respondent. The petitioner states that when the petitioner did not receive the acknowledgment, the correspondence was entered into between the petitioners and respondent nos. 1 and 2. The petitioners also made a request to the second respondent for postponing the date of opening of the technical packages, scheduled on 21st July, 2017, till the issue was resolved. However, respondent no. 2 proceeded with the opening of technical bids and the in the process, the petitioners also participated. The petitioner was orally informed that the petitioner's bid was not received in the respondents' system and therefore, its bid will not be considered as “valid bid”. The petitioners sought an experts' opinion from the private consultants, who advised that since the e-bid of the petitioners was properly uploaded on the respondents' server, which should be available for access by the