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AFTAB ALAM
Prem Printing Press – Appellant
Versus
Bihar State Text Book Publishing Corporation Ltd. – Respondent
Key Points: - The tender involved printing of school textbooks under DPEP-III with emphasis on timely and adequate paper supplies as a condition of contract (!) (!) (!) . - The Scrutiny Committee found the petitioner’s paper mill authorisation (Shreyans Industries Limited) to be fake as not confirmed by the paper mill, rendering the bid non-responsive under ITB Clause 36.1(b) (!) . - The Technical/Evaluation Committees rejected the petitioner’s bid for failure to satisfy clause 13.3(g) requiring a written confirmation from the concerned paper mill regarding paper supply (!) (!) . - The Court upheld that the rejection was not arbitrary or unreasonable given the lack of proper confirmation and the essential paper supply condition (!) . - Interim measures restricting supplies were later clarified; final decision dismissed the petition with no relief and directed possible refund of bank guarantees if entitled (!) (!) (!) .
1. What is the purpose of getting the school text books printed? The common man may feel nonplussed by such a question and answer the obvious that text books were meant to be read by school children. In this litigation this simple and self-evident truth appears to have been overlooked by everyone, unfortunately including this court, and this case seems to suggest that the object of getting text books printed was that a handful of private printers and contractors may make their profits.
2. The Bihar State Text Book Publishing Corporation (hereinafter referred to as the Corporation) issued a tender notice inviting nationwide bids for printing of over seventy five lacs volumes of books in different subjects for classes 1 to 7, described in the 25 schedules of the tender notice. The books were intended to be supplied to the girl students and children belonging to the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes for the academic session 2001, commencing from January and ending on December, 2001. There arose a dispute between the petitioner firm, one of the bidders, and the Corporation over the Corporations refusal to give to the petitioner the contract for printing of books under seven
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