Bidders must strictly adhere to stipulated financial eligibility criteria in tenders; altering bids after submission undermines the integrity of the bidding process.

JUDGMENT

Prathiba M. Singh, J. (Oral)

1. This hearing has been done through hybrid mode.

2. The present petition has been filed by the Petitioners which are Ground Handling Agents and have been providing `Ground Handling Services' at various airports in the country. The Petitioners are part of a Consortium, with Petitioner No.1 - Aero-Globe Facility Management as the lead member having 51% share, Petitioner No.2 - Sri Sai Sampat Aviation Handling Service having 26% share, and Petitioner No.3 - Airclub Aviation Private Limited having 23% share in the Consortium.

3. The Petitioners have preferred the present petition challenging the rejection of their Technical bids and non-consideration of their Financial bids for Ground-Handling Services in respect of multiple airports of the Respondents - AAI. The prayers sought in the present petition are extracted below:

"It is therefore, most respectfully prayed that this Hon'ble Court may graciously be pleased to:-

i) Pass appropriate writ, Certitiori, direction, order quashing orders of the Respondent authorities dated 12.12.2022 and 14.12.2022 disqualifying the Technical bids and not considering the Financial bid of the petitioners' consortium submitted in respect of eight airports of Bikaner, Gorakhpur, Gwalior, Hindon, Jaisalmer, Kanpur (Chakeri), Prayagraj (Allahabad) & Jamnagar in RFP Tender ld 2022_AAI_131185_1

ii) Pass appropriate writ in the nature of certiorari, direction, order quashing orders of the Respondent authorities dated 14.12.2022 declaring the selected H1 bidders for the eight airports of Bikaner, Gorakhpur, Gwalior, Hindon, Jaisalmer, Kanpur (Chakeri), Prayagraj (Allahabad) & Jamnagar in RFP Tender ld 2022_AAI 131185_1

iii) Pass appropriate writ, mandamus, direction, order directing the respondents to consider the financial bids submitted by the petitioners Consortium in respect of 8 airports - Bikaner, Gorakhpur, Gwalior, Hind on, Jaisalmer, Kanpur (Chakeri), Prayagraj (Allahabad) & Jamnagar ;

iv) Alternatively, Pass appropriate writ, mandamus, direction, order directing the respondents to consider the financial bids submitted by the petitioners Consortium in respect of at least seven airports Gorakhpur, Gwalior, Hindon, Jaisalmer, Kanpur (Chakeri), Prayagraj (Allahabad) & Jamnagar based on their own accepted summated Turnover of Petitioners at Rs 18 Crores ;

v) Pass appropriate writ, direction, order directing the respondents to refrain from giving effect to the selection of bidders subsequent to declaration of H1 including issuance of Letter of Intent to Award(LOIA) Consortium in respect of eight airports- Bikaner, Gorakhpur, Gwalior, Hindon, Jaisalmer, Kanpur (Chakeri), Prayagraj (Allahabad) & Jamnagar.

vi) Alternatively, Pass appropriate writ, direction, order directing the respondents to ask the declared H1 bidder/other bidders to at least match the MAG quoted by the petitioner consortium in respect of the airports in public interest where the Financial Bids submitted by the petitioners consortium is higher than the H1 amount of the Selected bidder.

vii) Pass such other direction/order as is deemed fit and proper in view of the facts and circumstances of the case."

4. The background of the case is that, on 6th October, 2022, the Respondent No.2 - Airport Authority of India floated a Request for Proposal ("RFP") seeking bids for Ground Handling Services at 20 AAI Group D Airports, vide Tender ID:2022_AAI_131185_1. The bid submission due date and time was specified as 4th November, 2022. A `bidder', for the purposes of the said tender, could be a single entity or a consortium comprising of a maximum of three entities.

5. The r