The main legal point established in the judgment is that the rejection of tenders must be based on valid legal grounds and cannot be arbitrary or unfair. The court emphasized the importance of legal certainty in tender terms and conditions and the distinction between formalities and essential conditions of the tender.

JUDGMENT

Rajarshi Bharadwaj, J. - By this appeal, correctness of the order of the learned Single judge dated 18.01.2022 passed in W.P.a. No. 19365 of 2021 (Ganesh Movers and Logistics (P) Ltd. -versus- Indian Oil Corporation Limted & Ors.) has been questioned by the appellant. This appeal is concerned with the order of the said learned Single Judge relating to the validity of the rejection of a Tender to the respondent/writ petitioner by the appellant/respondent that invited bids for road transportation of bulk petroleum products.

2. The facts of the case are that the appellant herein, the principal respondent in the writ petition by a notice of tender in the month of May-June 2021 invited bids for transportation of bulk petroleum products. In the said bid the writ petitioners took part and certain preconditions were set down in order to successfully submit their bids. One of such pre-requisites was the submission of valid registration certificate from the concerned RTO in support of the Tank Trucks offered. In September, 2021 the appellant sent varied techno-commercial queries and sought clarification from the respondent/petitioner, inter-alia, asking for documents such as No Objection Certificate for Tank Trucks, PESO certificate and a Board Resolution. all the documents were furnished by the petitioner.

3. The writ petitioner was informed via e-mail on the 2nd of November, 2021 that their technical bid was accepted by the Tender Evaluation committee and they stood at serial no.15 in the tender summary report published on the 4th of November, 2021. By a further intimation dated 9th of November, 2021 they were asked to take part in the financial part of the bid i.e., reverse auction for the Jharsuguda terminal.

4. The petitioner/respondent duly participated in the reverse auction on 12th November, 2021 and anticipated for the appellant to revert. However, on 19th November, 2021 the petitioner/respondent discovered that letters of acceptance had already been sent to several transporters. While ascertaining its status, by a communication dated 22nd November, 2021 the petitioner/respondent was informed that their tender was rejected during the financial evaluation due to invalid RC book, 2 Tank Trucks got disqualified vie PQC. Since, there were bidders with a greater number of Tank Trucks compared to the writ petitioner; No Tank Trucks were allocated to the writ petitioner.

5. according to the learned Senior advocate appearing for respondent/writ petitioner, the rejection of the petitioners bid is unfair, arbitrary, illegal and tainted with mala fides. Of the 15 TTs offered by the writ petitioner, two new vehicles had a Permanent Registration No's. OD15T0149 and OD15T0297 issued by the RTO, Sambalpur, Odisha.

6. The Smart Cards being the formal registration document with electronic data, were not received at the time bids were submitted and was only available on the 14th and 17th august, 2021 respectively. Firstly, it was argued that the tender along with the Registration certificate constituted the requisite compliance of the pre-qualification conditions (PQC) of the NIT. Therefore, the contention that Registration Certificate/RC book of the two TTs were not furnished along with the tender, was not justified on part of the appellants herein.

7. The respondent/writ petitioner's technical bid was already accepted by the appellant on the 2nd November, 2021. The respondent/writ petitioner was allowed to participate in the financial bid only thereafter. Thus, it was arbitrary and illegal to reject respondent/writ petitioner's technical bid from the LOT-1 category after technically disqualifying 2 TTs.

8. as per the terms of Section 41(6) of the Motor Vehicles act, 1988 the two tank trucks disqualified by the IOC had valid registration. Hence, it was unfair, arbitrary and contrary to law to disqualify the said Tank Trucks for alleged absence of Smart Card. after approving the respondent/writ petitioner's technical bid and allowing him to pa