Navaniti Pd.Singh, J.

1. In the present Writ application the petitioner has questioned the legality and propriety of rejection of his bid for appointment of Carrying and Forwarding Agent (hereinafter referred to as CFA) for Lubricants of Indian Oil Corporation, a Government of India undertaking to be situated at Dhanbad and established by the Indian Oil Corporation Limited, Bihar State Office Patna. The said communication is contained in letter dated 8.2.2006 (Annexure 11 to the Writ application).

2. In course of the Writ proceedings counter affidavit was filed by the Indian Oil Corporation and on disclosure that apart from petitioner there was only one other person in the running and consequent to the rejection of the petitioner the other person was to be granted the agency, the other person, namely, Pradeep Kumar Santhalia was added as respondent No. 4 and notices issued to him. He has also appeared and filed a counter affidavit.

3. The petitioner has filed rejoinder and with the consent of all the parties this Writ application was heard and is being disposed of at the stage of admission itself.

4. By the said impugned communication the petitioner has been informed that the land documents submitted by the petitioner does not meet the NIT condition and hence the petitioners tender documents for price bid is not to be considered. It is the legality in the correctness of this communication, that is in challenge. It is common ground that by the said order what is being communicated was that the petitioner having submitted a registered lease deed in his favour for a period of more than six years, as required, this deed was found to be inappropriate and not in accordance with law relating to lease, more specifically not in accordance with Sec.107 of the Transfer of Property Act.

5. The uncontroverted facts, in brief, are that Indian Oil Corporation Limited, a Government of India undertaking through its Marketing Division, Bihar State Office, Patna, issued a notice inviting tender for appointment or Carrying and Forwarding Agent for the State of Jharkhand for lubricants manufactured by Indian Oil Corporation. The location was to be at Dhanbad. The relevant terms and conditions have been annexed as Annexure 1 to the Writ application. The tender had to be filed in two separate sets. First, dealing with Techno commercial bid for which the last date for filing was 17.8.2005 at Patna and the Second was the Price bid cover. The two were to be marked A and B respectively and were to be in separate covers. One of the requirements in respect of Techno commercial bid was that the tenderers was to enclose documentary proof of papers of ownership/lease arrangement of land/warehouse and minimum qualifying criteria.

6. The petitioner in order to satisfy the said term of the Techno commercial bid, took on lease adequate land and for the said purpose got a lease deed drawn up and duly registered before the Registrar at Dhanbad on 13.8.2005, a copy whereof is annexed as Annexure 2 to the Writ application. He accordingly along with other documents submitted his tender on 17.8.2005. A perusal of lease deed would show that one Nemlal Mahto was the lessor and the petitioner was the lessee. The lease rent was Rs. 10,000.00 per year and lease period was seven years in relation to land about 3240 sq.m. in the district of Dhanbad .

7. It is not disputed that there were several other tenderers but except for petitioner and respondent No. 4, all other tenders were rejected consequent to opening of the Techno commercial bid.

8. The petitioner has brought on record various communications thereafter to show that his techno commercial bid, which included the said registered lease deed, was not treated to be inappropriate and/or not complying with the provisions of Sec.107 of the T.P. Act as several correspondences were there in relation to different matters but at no point of time any query was raised by Indian Oil Corporation with regard to the said lea