IMPORTANT POINT
The court established that tender conditions set by authorities are subject to judicial review only if they are manifestly arbitrary or unreasonable, and that the authority has the discretion to determine the requirements based on the nature of the work.

JUDGMENT/ORDER

DEVENDRA KUMAR UPADHYAYA, CJ. - Rule. Rule made returnable forthwith and heard finally by consent of the learned counsel for the parties.

2. Since the common questions of law and facts are involved in all these three petitions, the same are being decided by this common judgment, which follows :

Preliminary facts and the challenge:

3. The Collector, Nagpur issued an e-tender notice dtd. 29/9/2023 inviting bids for setting up polling booths, supply of furniture and other auxiliary materials on rental basis to be used for conducting the impending Parliamentary General Elections 2024 in Nagpur District.

4. The challenge in all these writ petitions is to certain conditions contained in the e-tender notice dtd. 29/9/2023 and the corrigendum issued thereto, dtd. 10/10/2023 after the pre-bid meeting held on 6/10/2023.

5. In Writ Petition No.7006 of 2023, prayer made is to quash the tender notice dtd. 29/9/2023 and the corrigendum dtd. 10/10/2023.

In Writ Petition No.7023 of 2023, apart from making a prayer for quashing the tender notice dtd. 29/9/2023 and the corrigendum dtd. 10/10/2023, a prayer has also been made to stay the condition of the tender whereby the tenderers have been required to pay an amount of Rs.2, 40, 000.00 as tender fee and also to stay the amended clause 8 and the added clause 11 as contained in the corrigendum dtd. 10/10/2023. A further prayer has been made in this writ petition for issuing a direction to the respondents to accept the tender form of the petitioner by relaxing the conditions No.8 and 11 of the corrigendum dtd. 10/10/2023. In Writ Petition No.6955 of 2023, a prayer is made to quash the tender condition, which requires the tenderers to make payment of Rs.2, 40, 000.00 as the cost of tender form and also to quash the tender conditions No.7 and 8 as contained in the tender notice dtd. 29/9/2023. The other prayer made in this writ petition is to quash the corrigendum dtd. 10/10/2023 as shown in Item (I) Envelope No.1 - Technical Bid. It has further been prayed in this writ petition that the respondents be directed to accept the bid of the petitioner ignoring the impugned clauses of the tender notice, which are under challenge in this writ petition.

6. On the basis of pleadings available on record and the submissions made by the learned counsel for the petitioners, the conditions impugned herein are as follows :

(a) Envelope No.1 :

Please pay Rs.2, 40, 000.00 (Rupees Two Lakhs Forty Thousand only) towards the tender application fee (Non-refundable).

(b) It is necessary to have the average financial turnover of the last three years which should be at least 40% of the estimated amount in the tender. A certificate of the Chartered Accountant in this regard is required to be submitted.

(c) An experience certificate signed by the competent authority about supply of goods, furniture and other auxiliary materials in the two districts during the previous Parliamentary General Elections.

(d) A certificate from the competent authority evidencing that the tenderer has completed the work up to 60% of the estimated amount mentioned in the earlier tender in any one year during seven years prior to 30/9/2023.

Submissions made by the learned counsel for the petitioners :

7. Drawing our attention to the aforesaid impugned tender conditions contained in the tender notice dtd. 29/9/2023 and the corrigendum dtd. 10/10/2023, it has been argued that the said tender conditions are absolutely arbitrary, unreasonable and suffer from the vice of mala fides and accordingly deserve to be quashed. In respect of the condition that the tenderer is required to pay a sum of Rs.2, 40, 000.00 towards tender application fee, it has been stated that the same is completely arbitrary for the reason that it is exorbitant considering the estimated tender amount of Rs.15.00 crores. As far as the requirement in the tender condition to the effect that the tenderer will have to submit a certificate from the Chartered Accountant evidencing t