The main legal point established in the judgment is the importance of adhering to the norms, standards, and procedures laid down by the authorities and the need to be fair to all concerned.

( 1 ) THE petitioners who are two in number along with the third respondent herein which is said to be a public sector undertaking,- along with many others, participated in a tender for supply of various types of sleepers pursuant to a tender floated by the second respondent herein being Tender No. Track-1 of 2001. By reason of the said tender, a notice inviting tender was called in respect of 6,30,000 sleepers. Having regard to the terms and conditions of the said notice inviting tender, the participants submitted their offer to a limited quantity. The positions of the parties upon submission of their respective offers would appear from the following chart:

"railway board Tender 1 of 2001 for Manufacture and supply of 6,30 M. G. Steel Trough sleepers opened on 19. 04. 2001the relevant terms and conditions of the said tender are as under:

"3. 6. The purchaser reserves the right to place order (s) for any quantity within the tendered quantity or even discharge the tender at it sole discretion without prejudice. 8. 1 The Tenderers should quote firm price only which will not be subject to any variation. 8. 6 Tenderers have to quote only one uniform rate for the quantity they tender for. The offers of the firm which link the rates with the quantity for which order is placed shall be treated as unresponsive and may be summarily rejected. 9. 1. 1 One-month preparation time shall be granted to the contractor after placement of the order. 50% of the quantity ordered shall have to be supplied within four months thereafter and the balance 50% quantity shall be supplied within the next four months. 13. 1 Bulk orders for supply of ST sleepers against this tender shall be placed only on the RDSO approved manufacturers of steel trough sleepers/steel turnout sleepers/rolled steel sleepers and the tenderers must submit a copy of their current and valid registration along with their offer. No tenderers registered or validated by RDSO after the opening of the tender shall be considered for placement of bulk order. Other tenderers may be considered for placement of developmental orders of the sleepers, provided their credentials are found to be satisfactory. 19. 2 In case the overall value of the tender by a public sector undertaking of the State or Central government is within 110% of the overall value of the lowest tender of a private sector tenderer, the Railway reserves the right to give purchase preference to the tender of such public sector undertaking at the lowest acceptable rate, ignoring the lower tenderer. "

DESPITE the fact that the third respondent, as noticed hereinbefore, offered to supply only 81,000 sleepers, a purported negotiation took place between (he authorities of the first respondent and the said third respondent. It is not in dispute that orders are placed only on RDSO approved suppliers. The grievance of the petitioner is that despite the fact that the third respondent made an offer only of 81,000 sleepers although it was not an RDSO approved supplier at the relevant point of time for the entire quantity, the respondents have placed offer in respect of the entire quantity in its favour upon entering into a negotiation therefor which is not contemplated in law. The offer made in favour of the third respondent, having regard to the terms and conditions of the notice inviting tender, was therefore illegal. In support of the said contention, reliance has been placed. on monarch Infrastructure (P) Ltd. v. Commissioner. Ulhasnagar Municipal corporation and Ors. , (2000) 5 SCC 287 and Harminder Singh Arora v. Union of India and Ors. , (1986)3scc247. It was pointed out on behalf of the learned counsel for the petitioner that in the instant case the respondent No. 3 is fighting a shadow battle inasmuch as m/s Bina Metal Way Ltd. which was also one of the bidders, sought for extension from time to lime and later on underhand arrangement was. arrived at between it and the third respondent to favour it by placing an order i