( 1 ) THIS judgment will apply to four different writ petitions. The challenge, however,in all these petitions is to the non-inclusion of the petitioners in the final list of eight partiesfor grant of licence to operate the Cellular Mobile Telephone Services in four cities,namely, Bombay, Delhi, Calcutta and Madras. These are C. W. P. No. 4030/92 (Indiatelecomp Limited), C. W. P. No. 4031/92 (Adino Telecom Limited), C. W. P. 4302/92 (Kanazia Digital Systems Pvt. Ltd), and C. W. P. 163/92 (M/s. Hutchison Max Telecompvt. Ltd ). Respondents number 11. First three respondents are the Union of India throughthe Department of Telecommunications (Dot), Director General of Telecommunications,and Chairman, Dot. Other eight respondents are those to whom licences to run thecellular Mobile Telephone Services have been agreed to be given though provisionally. It is better to set out their names as well:-

1. TATA Cellular P. Ltd. (respondent No. 4)2. Bharti Cellular, (respondent No. 5)3. Skycell Communications Pvt. Ltd. (respondent No. 6)4. Sterling Cellular, (respondent No. 7)5. Mobile Telecom Services Ltd. (respondent No. 8)6. Usha Martin Telecom, (respondent No. 9)7. BPL Systems and Projects Ltd. (respondent No. 10)8. Indian Telecom Pvt. Ltd. (respondent No. 11)

( 2 ) RESPONDENTS number have been given with reference to the petition of Indiatelecomp Limited (C. W. P. No. 4030/92 ). Facts or allegations except otherwise stated inthe judgment have reference to this writ petition of India Telecomp Limited. Similarly,unless otherwise stated, reference to respondents would mean respondents 1,2 and 3.

( 3 ) THE prayer in all these four petitions is to the effect that these petitioners havebeen wrongly denied the licence and that on reconsideration of the matter they be grantedthe licence.

( 4 ) SINCE all these matters pertain to Cellular Mobile Telephone (or "cellularphone") we may understand what it means in the layman s language. A cellular telephonemakes its possible for the user to have a 2-way telephone conversation from his car utilisingthe latest radio telephony technologies. The user can dial out or receive any call from thecar (or "mobile location") like any normal telephone to another car having such phoneand telephones at stationary location within or outside the city. The word "cellular" isderived from the "cell" or the radio-zone created around an antenna to transmit and receivetelephone messages. Such many antennas and cells are repeated at many places in acityto provide city-wide coverage. The cells are inter-connected for uniterrupted communiction from moving vehicle and the whole system is linked to telephone exchanges of thetelecom Authority (or MTNL) so that user not only can talk to any other user in the samecity (either "stationary" or "mobile") but also can make STD/isd calls from the movingvehicle. There are many cellular technologies, for instance, amps which was popularso far and now gsm which is now standardised by most European countries and is alsoselected by Dept. of Telecom of India.

( 5 ) DEPARTMENT of Telecommunications with a view to licence the operation ofcellular Mobile Telephone Services in four metro areas, namely, Bombay, Delhi,calcutta and Madras, invited tenders from Indian companies. In response thereto 30indian companies gave their bids. The tenders were opened on 30/03/1992. After thebids were received, a Tender Evaluation Committee (TEC) was set up to examine the offersfor shortlisting on the basis of tender documents and the clarifications which had beenissued. As a matter of fact, tender documents were processed in various stages. In thefirst stage, bids were invited as per specifications of Dot containing tenchnical,commercial and eligibility conditions. The TEC which had been constituted examined thethirty bids recommended shortling of sixteen parties, four of them by condoning certaindeficiencies in their tender documents, though staling at the same time that theirtechnical off