JUDGMENT :

1. The petitioner no. 2 is the sole director of the petitioner no. 1, which is a woman-run certified MSE (Micro and Small Enterprise) company. The petitioners participated in a tender floated by the Indian Oil Corporation Limited (IOCL), which is the respondent no. 1 herein, on August 25, 2021 for road transportation of bulk petroleum products-black oil for 52 Tank Trucks (TTs) for two years. Corrigenda of the initial tender notice were published on September 20 and 30 and October 20, 2021. The last date for submission of bids, as finally extended, was November 1, 2021. The bid of petitioner no. 1 was submitted on September 20, 2021, for which an acknowledgment receipt was issued by the IOCL.

2. The petitioners allege that on receipt of the petitioner’s online bid application, the Assistant Manager (Contracts) ERO, IOCL verbally asked petitioner no. 2 why no RC Book had been provided in respect of the TTs and that the petitioner cited delay in the concerned registration offices in handing over RC Books for all five TTs to the petitioner, apparently due to the then prevailing pandemic situation. According to the petitioners, they received hard copies of the RC Books only in