JUDGMENT :

Arijit Banerjee, J.

1. This appeal is directed against a judgment and order dated April 24, 2023, whereby, the writ petition of the appellants being W.P.A. 9529 of 2023 was dismissed.

2. A tender has been floated by Kolkata Municipal Corporation (in short ‘KMC’) for supply and delivery of liquid chlorine from proven and reputed manufacturers/their authorized agents. The tender pertains to the financial year 2023-24. The estimated tender value is Rs. 4,22,50,158/-. The eligibility criteria for participation in the tender is mentioned as follows:-

“4. Eligibility criteria for participation in the tender

All intending tenderers should qualify eligibility criteria for the purpose of TENDER FOR LIQUID CHLORINE. If any of the participating tenderer fails to qualify in any of the terms & conditions mentioned below, the particular tender will be declared informal/non-responsive.

I) Tenderer should produce valid PAN issued by IT Department, Govt. of India, valid 15-digit Goods and Services taxpayer Identification Number (GSTIN) under GST Act, 2017, latest Professional Tax returns copy and certificate. Trade license will be mandatory for those whose unit is located within the jurisdiction of KMC.

II) a) Intending tenderers should produce credentials of a similar nature of completed work of the minimum value of 40% (Forty per cent) of the estimated amount put to tender during 5(five) years prior to the date of issue of the tender notice; Or,

b) Intending tenderers should produce credentials of 2(two) similar nature of completed work, each of the minimum value of 30% (Thirty per cent) of the estimated amount put to tender during 5 (five) years prior to the date of issue of the tender notice; Or,

C) Intending tenderers should produce credentials of one single running work of similar nature which has been completed to the extent of 80% (Eighty per cent) or more and value of which is not less than the desired value at (a) above; In case of running works, only those tenderers who will submit the certificate of satisfactory running work from the concerned Executive Engineer, or equivalent competent authority will be eligible for the tender. In the required certificate it should be clearly stated that the work is in progress satisfactorily and also that no penal action has been initiated against the executing agency, i.e., the tenderer.

Similar nature of work includes supply of any materials.

Completed work-Completed single or multiple purchase order issued from a single tender.

Payment certificate will not be treated as credential;

Credential certificate issued by Executive engineer or equivalent or competent authority of a State/Central Government, State/Central Government undertaking, Statutory/Autonomous bodies constituted under the Central/State statute, on the executed value of completed/running work will be taken as credential.

The bidder should have valid explosive license at the time of opening of the bid, L1 bidder should submit the authorization certificate from the manufacturer whose material it is going to supply.

If L1 bidder failed to submit the authorization certificate from the manufacturer within seven days, then the EMD of L1 bidder will be forfeited and will be debarred from participating in all future tenders up to 3 years.”

3. The notice inviting tender mentions about a pre-bid meeting which any interested party having any query or requiring any information, could attend.

4. The Appellant no. 1, a partnership firm and the Respondent no. 9 along with another party participated in the tender process. The Respondent no. 9 was found to have quoted the lowest price and emerged as L1 bidder. The work order has not yet been issued.

5. After the Respondent no. 9 became the successful bidder, the appellants approached the learned Single Judge challenging the tender process. Before the learned Single Judge it was primarily argued that in similar tenders for the last few years, “similar nature of work” was defined as including supply of an