( 1 ) PETITIONERS by this petition seek, inter alia issuance of directions to the respondents to award the contract in respect of Tender No. DRTS/aren/jan-2005 floated by respondent No. 2, Bharat Electronics limited on behalf of respondent No. 1/uoi to it. Petitioners further seek directions to restrain respondents No. 1 and 2 from negotiating with any other bidder except it on the ground that it is the lowest bidder of the said tender.

( 2 ) THE facts in brief are: Respondent No. 2, Bharat Electronics Ltd. was nominated by respondent No. 1, Ministry of Defence, Government of India, as the prime contractor for Indian Army's modernization plan for Technical communication System (TCS ). Respondent No. 2 floated a Request for proposal (RFP) for procurement of Digital Radio Trunking System (DRTS), also popularly known as Terrestrial Trunked Radio (TETRA) which is a major component in the TCS Programme of the Indian Army, vide Tender no. DRTS/aren/jan-2005. In the RFP floated by respondent No. 2 for the drts, the vendors were called upon to make firm technical and commercial proposals for the supply and transfer of technology of DRTS to respondent no. 2 for incorporating in their solution to Indian Army. It was specified that the commercial offers should be for quantities of 80 systems as per Bill of material enclosed with the RFP.

( 3 ) THE technical specifications detailed the components of the DRTS by splitting them into 9 sub-systems. The tender also stipulated that the licensed manufacture of DRTS shall be undertaken by respondent No. 2 through a Transfer of Technology (Tot) for both hardware and software by executing a Tot Agreement between the vendor and respondent No. 2

( 4 ) IN terms of the tender document, the evaluation, trials and completion of the contract was proposed to be carried out in five phases spread over a period of time. Phase-I comprised a Preliminary Evaluation of Vendor Proposal and technical analysis, including presentations to be made by the vendors as also clarifications to be provided on questions raised during the presentations and subsequent analysis to the Technical evaluation Committee (TEC) for being shortlisted for the Phase-II evaluations. Phase-II evaluations comprised the visits of the empowered technical team to assess the vendor system at the vendor premises to assess the technical capability, encryption, implementation, confirmation of essential parameters and suitability of equipment as per RFP, demonstration of system capability, mock up installation at the location of the vendors and vendors found qualified by the above criteria were to be shortlisted for Phase-Ill evaluation.

( 5 ) PHASE-ILL evaluation required the vendors to offer three systems for user trials; one of them was to be installed in a shelter provided by respondent No. 2, which was to be followed by user trials to be conducted by an evaluation team from the Indian Army. The vendors were also required to give a written undertaking that their systems will meet all the requirements of technical and environmental evaluations, maintainability evaluation trials etc. to be conducted in Phase-V.

( 6 ) PHASE-IV comprised opening of the commercial offers of such of the vendors whose systems were shortlisted after Phase-Ill by a Committee in the presence of the tenderers and further negotiations were to be made only with the lowest bidder (L1) as determined by the Committee. Final Phase-V came into play after placement of order when the successful tenderer was required to supply the three systems.

( 7 ) AS a run up to understand the dispute interse the parties, it is also necessary to be apprised of the relevant dates and events.

( 8 ) ON 8th February, 2005, a pre-bid meeting was held by respondent no. 2 where the prospective bidders were apprised of the contents and basic requirements of the tender. In March 2005, eight bidders, including petitioner No. 1 submitted their bids in response to the RFP. Phase-I eva