SANJAY KISHAN KAUL, J.

1. The Apparel Export Promotion Council (for short „AEPC?), respondent No.2 invited tenders in July, 2010 for engaging an event management agency for the International Trade Fair, Tex-Styles India-2011, to be held in February, 2011at Pragati Maidan, New Delhi. The petitioner applied in pursuance to the tenders floated in this regard. The bid process envisaged two stages of evaluation, i.e. technical bid and the financial bid.

2. The scope of activities for which the bid was invited included designing of logo, registration counter, stall construction, parking, signage/hoarding, audio-visual equipments, communication of the event, cafeteria, security, housekeeping, local transport for buyers, photograph, printing and mailing activities. The bids were evaluated based on the parameters fixed by the respondents. The petitioner was selected for award of the work, the total cost of the project being estimated at `17.44 crore. The petitioner claimed management fee of 12.5 per cent of the total expenditure, excluding hall rentals, catering expenses and stall construction. Respondent No.2 in terms of letter dated 9.9.2010 issued the Expression of Interest appointing the petitioner as the event management agency subject to finalization of agreement, terms & conditions and financial bids.

3. It is the case of the petitioner that thereafter meetings were held regarding work, but since the time for execution was short and the formalities were to take some time, it was requested to start the work. The petitioner prepared a team of professionals to get on with the job. The petitioner claimed to have got a number of consultants and professionals of its own and the petitioner company has a turnover of more than `70.00 crore and it has been doing similar works for various authorities including the Government authorities. Thus, it had no hesitation in starting the work and even copies of logo were prepared.

4. A copy of the agreement to be entered into was sent by respondent No.2 enclosed with its e-mail dated 10.10.2010. There were certain aspects on which the petitioner sought queries vide its e-mail dated 15.10.2010.

5. The petitioner received a letter from respondent No.2 dated 20.10.2010 in the following terms:

“Dear Sir,

1. Kindly refer to our Expression of Interest letter September 9, 2010.

2. We had sent you the Draft Agreement, which is yet not signed by you.

3. Attention is invited to certain news telecast on Television on 19th Oct., 2010 and also news item on 20th Oct., 2010 about the raids conducted by the Enforcement Directorate and others, mentioning the name of “Meroform (India) Pvt. Ltd.”.

Immediately, after hearing this, AEPC had tried to contact senior officials of M/s. Meroform (India) Pvt. Ltd., to ascertain the status, however, we could not get the status. This may adversely affect smooth implementation of our project of Tex-Trends India 2011. You are requested to kindly inform us about the status of the above within 3 days. Kindly also acknowledge receipt. With best regards.”

6. The aforesaid letter was responded to on 22.10.2010 by the petitioner in the following terms:

“Dear Sir, This refers to your letter no.AEPC:HO:EP:MII:2010 dated October 20, 2010. As regards the News item, the enquiry is being conducted on many companies who are involved in making Commonwealth Games Project. CWG contract is in GL Litmus Events Pvt. Ltd. in which Meroform India P. Ltd. is a shareholder in the consortium. However, we assure you that this will not affect the execution of the project. We have a separate dedicated team who would execute the project to your best satisfaction.

In this connection we would also like to inform you that yesterday we have been awarded by India Tourism Development Corpn., A Govt. of India undertaking based at 3rd Floor, Jeevan Vihar Building, New Delhi the work of Designing and Fabricating temporary hanger structure at Vigyan Bhawan for PETROTECH 2010, being organized by PETROTECH Society (A

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