MUKUL MUDGAL, J.

1. The present petition challenges the letter No. NHAI/BOT/11012/66/2005/3940 dated 26th August, 2008 issued by the respondent no.1 National Highways Authority of India (hereinafter referred to as NHAI ) to the petitioner consortium intimating the petitioner that it is not eligible to participate in the second stage of the bidding process (the bid stage) in supercession of its earlier letter dated June 27, 2008 pursuant to which the consortium had been declared pre-qualified for the project in question i.e. Design, engineering, construction, development, finance, operation and maintenance of Hyderabad- Vijayawada section of the National Highway 9 (hereinafter referred to as NH9) from KM 40.000 to KM 221.500 of NH 9 in the state of Andhra Pradesh under National Highways Development Programme Phase IIIA on Build Operate and Transfer-toll Basis. The petitioner No.1 GMR Infrastructure Ltd. had applied pursuant to the Request For Qualification (RFQ), issued by the respondent No. 1 NHAI in December, 2007. It is not in dispute that pursuant to the process of evaluation and after compliance of the terms of the tender, and in particular Clause 3.5.2, the pet