S. RAVINDRA BHAT. J.

( 1 ) 1. The petitioner (hereafter referred to as "nbcc"), a Centrally owned government company, claims a quashing order in respect of the letter issued by the New Delhi Municipal Corporation (NDMC) debarring it from participating in any tenders, for five years. It also seeks a direction to the government of National Capital Territory (NCT) to permit it to participate in a tender process notified by it, in August, 2006.

( 2 ) NDMC invited tenders on 16. 05. 1994 for construction of the New delhi City Centre Phase II comprising Band C blocks. After due negotiations the offer of NBCC was accepted for Rs. 23,80,81,978. The stipulated dates of start and completion were 02. 09. 1994 and 01. 09. 1997 respectively. It is alleged that work was actually completed by 16. 08. 2003 due to several alleged defaults/acts of omission and commission on the part of NDMC. The nbcc resorted to arbitration, a sole arbitrator was appointed on 16. 08. 1998, to decide upon 18 claims made by the Petitioner. An interim award was published on 21. 09. 2000 wherein an award was made for the sum of Rs. 70,19,081. 32. NDMC satisfied the interim award on 19. 12. 2000. In the meantime ten further claims were raised by the Petitioner, all of which were referred on 01. 05. 2000 to the arbitrator.

( 3 ) THE arbitrator in the second arbitration published the second interim award on 04. 10. 2001 and as on 31. 12. 2001. The amount payable under the second interim award was Rs. 2,19,65,029/ -. The third arbitration was invoked in August 2004, and the learned arbitrator entered upon reference on 28. 01,2005. It is alleged that by letter dated 17. 03. 2005 to the Secretary ministry of Urban Development the Chairman of NDMC cast aspersions with an intent to tarnish the image of NBCC. This was raised before the arbitrator and claims were preferred by the petitioner on 09. 09. 2005 for compensation against this action. It is alleged, that as a counter blast to this ndmc issued a mischievous and mala fide show cause notice dated 20. 09. 2005, during the pendency of the arbitration proceedings, in relation to an alleged defective work listed by its letter dated 03. 09. 2003. It is alleged that the letter dated 03. 09. 2003 was also relied on by the NDMC before the arbitrator, in its counter claims.

( 4 ) THE petitioner, in response to the show cause notice, refuted the allegations levelled, and refrained from commenting on the same in deference to the proceedings before the learned arbitrator. It further alleged that in two successive arbitrations it was established that NDMC failed to fulfill its promise leading to undue prolongation of the contract. Despite the detailed reply sent by the petitioner and pendency of the disputes before the arbitration proceedings NDMC by letter dated 22. 11. 2005 unreasonably. arbitrarily and without any reason debarred it from further tendering in all projects for five years. It is alleged that NBCC wrote to the concerned departments, after receipt of the impugned letter dated 22. 11. 2005 explaining its conduct and further highlighting that it would not be legally permissible to the such departments to disqualify or debar it from tendering for their works as it would be violative of principles of natural justice.

( 5 ) WHILE the position stood thus, the Govt of NCT invited tenders for the work of construction of Advocate Chambers at District Court, Saket, through their press Notice Inviting Tenders (NIT) published in Hindustan times dated 10. 12. 2005. As per the said NIT the NBCC fulfilled the eligibility criteria and applied for the purchase of the tender forms. During the pre-bid meeting on 06. 06. 2006 the Respondent No. 2 asked all the parties to submit an undertaking that they had not been disqualified and blacklisted. It is alleged that this clause was not placed in the original NIT. The last date for submission of tender was on 23. 06. 2006 and NBCC and one M/s. Era Constructions Ltd. submitted their ten