A.K. Sikri, J. - The petitioner No.1 company (hereinafter referred to as the petitioner) is a wholly owned subsidiary of the petitioner No.2, which is one of its major shareholders and the other major shareholder being TV Today Network Group. Both the petitioner No.2 and TV Today Network own the India Today magazine and the twenty-four hours news channel Aaj Tak respectively.

2. The respondent Union of India, through the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, had introduced its policy vide Notification dated 13.7.2005 regarding expansion of FM Radio Broadcasting through private agencies. The objective of such policy was to attract private agencies to supplement and complement the efforts of All India Radio by operationalizing radio stations that provide programmes with local content and relevance, improve the quality of fidelity in reception and generation, encouraging local talent and generating employment. The process of inviting tenders by way of such a bidding was divided into two phases. In the year 2005, 337 channels were put on bid, out of which 280 channels were successfully bid for. After scrutiny,- letter of intent was issued for operationalisation of 245 channels. The Government decided to invite bids for remaining vacant channels. For this purpose, tender document for inviting bids for these channels was issued on 8.6.2007. The petitioner, who was successful in obtaining licence to operate 7 radio stations for a period of 10 years in the first instance, submitted its bidl application form on 211 23.7.2007 responding to the aforesaid Notice Inviting Tenders. Many others also submitted their bids. After scrutiny of the applications, the respondent No.1 has come out with the list of final bidders on their official website eligible to furnish their technical bid for the bidding for vacant channel of FM Radio Broadcasting Phase-II. This list was displayed on 30.11.2007 and the name of the petitioner does not figure in this list. The petitioner, feeling surprised at this exclusion, addressed letter dated 3.12.2007 trying to find out the reason thereof. Vide letter of even date, the respondents have informed the petitioner that on the basis of the Net Worth Certificate submitted and on the perusal of the balance sheet, it is found that the petitioner is not eligible to participate in the financial bidding process in terms of the tender document.

3. We may note at this stage itself that the bidding process is in two stages, namely, Stage-I and Stage-II. In Stage-I, applications were invited from interested parties and they were required to submit the details of their eligibility as per the formats specified in Appendices A and B to the tender document along with a demand draft of Rs. 15,000/-. The interested parties 1 applicants were required to meet the eligibility criteria as specified in Section 2 of the said document. Only those who fulfil this criteria (to be known as qualified interested parties) were to be invited to participate in Stage-II of the bidding process. According to the respondents, the petitioner has not been able to meet the eligibility criteria as per Section 2 of the tender document.

4. Section 2, inter alia, specifies financial eligibility and fixes the Net Worth at Rs. 10 crores for All Categories of Cities in all Regions, under which category the petitioner submitted its bid. The dispute is on the calculation of this Net Worth. The petitioner in its application had submitted the necessary documents regarding its Net Worth. In calculating this Net Worth, the petitioner had included the One Time Entry Fee (for short, OTEF) period by it in respect of licences granted to it in the 1st Phase in its assets, treating the same as intangible assets. The respondents have taken the stand that this OTEF cannot be included in the book value of assets. There is no dispute that if this OTEF is to be included as an asset while calculating the book value of assets, Net Worth of the petitioner would exceed R