The experience of a partner can be considered as the experience of the partnership firm, and the date of joining the partnership is immaterial for the purpose of experience as contemplated in the clause of experience.

ORDER :—

The respondent Nos. 2 and 3 issued an on-line tender notice for transportation and rake handling of fertilizers to its dealers from Nanded Maltekadi Rake Point to different dealers in Nanded District.

2. Pursuant to the tender notice, the petitioner along with others filled in the tender. The petitioner’s technical bid is rejected on the ground that the petitioner does not possess the experience of rake handling and transportation as per NIT requirements. The same is assailed in the present writ petition.

3. The work experience required by the tenderer as per the clause in the tender reads thus —

III – CRITERIA FOR TECHNICAL EXPERTISE

WORK EXPERIENCE: The Tenderer should have work experience of having successfully completed RAKE HANDLING and TRANSPORTATION WORKS OF BAGGED MATERIAL. The Tenderer should submit the Work Orders and the corresponding Work Completion certificates/Experience certificate, duly obtained from Manufacturer/Handling agency Govt. Dept./PSU/Public Ltd. Company dealing in Fertilizers, Food Grains, Cement or similar products. Such work experience should be during last 7 years ending last day of month previous to the one in which applications are invited.

4. The petitioner is a partnership firm. Initially, the partnership consisted of three partners. On or about 14th day of August, 2020, one Trilochansingh s/o Mohansingh Bhatiya is added as a 4th partner. The said partnership is deemed to have commenced on 14th day of August, 2020.

5. The newly added partner namely, Trilochansingh is also the proprietor of Raja Transport Company. The petitioner filled in the tender on 9th September, 2020. The tender is floated by the respondent on 26th August, 2020. The last date for submission of tender was 12th September, 2020. The petitioner is informed that the bid of the petitioner is rejected during technical evaluation by the duly constituted Committee for the reason “Technically not pre-qualified due to nonsubmission of work experience as per NIT requirement”.

6. The parties are ad idem that if the experience of the 4th partner is considered to be the experience of the petitioner partnership firm, then the petitioner partnership firm possesses the necessary experience, but according to the respondents, the experience of the newly added 4th partner cannot be considered as the experience of the partnership firm.

7. The prima dona dispute is whether the experience of the 4th partner can be considered for the benefit of the firm.

8. Mr. Dhorde, the learned counsel for the petitioner submits that the newly added partner has brought with him required experience. The experience of the partner of the firm can be considered to be the experience of the firm for all purposes. To substantiate his contention, the learned counsel relies on the judgment of the Apex Court in the case of New Horizon Limited and anr. vs. Union of India and ors., reported in (1995) 1 SCC 478. According to the learned counsel, the person possessing past experience enters into the partnership and the tender is submitted in the name of partnership firm the earlier experience of one of the partners of the firm can be taken into consideration. The date of joining of the partnership firm by a partner would be immaterial.

9. Mr. Sapkal, the learned senior counsel for the respondents strenuously contends that as per the clause in the tender, the work experience should be during last seven years, ending last day of month previous to the one in which applications are invited. The tender is floated on 26th August, 2020. The experience should be for last seven months prior to 31st July, 2020. The 4th partner Trilochansingh is added as a partner to the partnership firm on 14th day of August, 2020. In view of that, his experience prior to 31st July, 2020 cannot be considered to be the experience of the partnership firm. The learned senior counsel relies upon section 14 of the Partnership Act. According to the learned senior counsel, the property of the firm includes a