JUDGMENT :

PRATEEK JALAN, J.

1. This writ petition concerns a tender floated by the first respondent, Oil and Natural Gas Corporation Ltd. (hereinafter, “ONGC”) for the design, engineering, construction, fabrication, installation and commissioning of various facilities (including a Central Processing Platform and Living Quarters and Utilities) at one of its offshore platforms. The petitioner, L&T Hydrocarbon Engineering Ltd. (hereinafter, “L&T”) is part of a consortium (with the fourth respondent, McDermott Asia Pacific Pvt. Ltd.) which participated in the tender. The second and third respondents, Afcons Infrastructure Ltd. (hereinafter, “Afcons”) and Sapura Fabrication SDN BHD (hereinafter, “Sapura”) formed another consortium. By way of this petition, L&T contends that the Afcons/Sapura consortium (hereinafter, “ASC”) was not technically qualified to participate in the tender, and its bid ought to have been rejected at the threshold.

2. The tender was issued on 24.11.2016, and amended on 06.04.2017 in accordance with circulars dated 01.03.2017 and 03.04.2017 issued by ONGC. Thr