JUDGMENT :

Dipankar Datta, J.

1. Motor Vehicles Department, Government of Maharashtra (hereafter “GoM”, for short) issued Tender Notification No. TCO/Comp/RCDLTender/2021/On4180 dated 25th March 2021 in the form of a REQUEST FOR PROPOSAL (hereafter “RFP”, for short) for Selection of a Service Provider for Centralized Printing of Registration Certificates and Driving Licenses for a period of five (5) years.

2. In this writ petition dated 6th June 2022, the petitioner has questioned clauses 2.15 and 2.16 of the RFP on grounds as urged therein and has prayed for, inter alia, the following relief :

“(A) Pass a direction/order in the nature of Mandamus or Certiorari or any other writ thereby quashing or setting aside the referred RFP dated 25.03.2021, thereby quashing the impugned discriminatory, arbitrary and tailor-made eligibility condition as embodied under Clause 2.16, Sr. No. 1 (Turnover), Clause 2.16, Sr. No. 2 (Net-worth), Clause 2.16, Sr. No. 5 (experience), Clause 2.15 of the impugned RFP issued for “Section of a Service Provider for Centralized Printing of Registration Certificates and Driving License for Motor Vehicles Department in the State of Maharashtra for a period of 5 years for the same being violative of Article 14 and 19(1)(g).

(B) Pass an order, directing Respondent no. 2 to issue a fresh RFP for selection of service provider for issuance of DL/RC Smart Cards by replacing the pre-qualification conditions as embodied in Clause 2.16, Sr. No.1 (Turnover), Clause 2.16, Sr. No. 2 (Net-worth), Clause 2.16, Sr. No. 5 (experience), Clause 2.15; of the afore-mentioned RFP, with modified terms which are fair and competitive.”

3. Since clauses 2.15 and 2.16 (partly) are under challenge, we consider it appropriate to extract the same in its entirety below for facility of appreciation. The said clauses read thus:

“2.15 Pre-Qualification Criteria This invitation for bids is open to bidders who are eligible to do business in India under relevant Indian laws as is in force at the time of bidding as per the criteria mentioned in the RFP. The bidder shall submit all the documents as mentioned below and additionally other documents as necessary. Only bids qualifying the criteria below would be eligible for further technical evaluation.