S. RAVINDRA BHAT, J.

1. The petitioner (hereafter referred to as “Mohandas”) is aggrieved that its bid in response to the Notice Inviting Tender ("NIT") inviting two separate bids for Short Term Improvements & Routine Maintenance Work of sections of Porbandar-Bhiladi-Jetpur; (Km. 0.000 to Km.117.600) of NH-8B in the State of Gujarat (hereafter “the works”) issued by the National Highways Authority of India (“NHAI”) was not accepted. The NITs were issued on 15.12.2016 and 22.02.2017 (both are subject matter of two separate writ petitions, WP 6719/2017 and WP 6720/2017).

2. The petitioner is a works contractor; it claims to have gained experience in construction and maintenance of roads and highways. It responded to the two NITS, issued on separate dates. The scope of the project included routine maintenance of all the assets, facilities and services created within Right of Way (hereinafter "ROW") on the specified sections of national highways including maintenance of carriageway, shoulders, median etc., providing incident management by way of route patrol and surveillanc