JUDGMENT :

Ashutosh J. Shastri, J.

1. The present petition is filed under Article 226 of the Constitution of India for seeking the following reliefs:

“(A) Your Lordships may be pleased to issue a writ of certiorari and or any other appropriate writ, order or direction to quash and set aside the termination letter dated 18th August 2021 (Annexure H) issued by the Respondent No. 3 herein by declaring it illegal and bad in law.

(B) Your Lordships may be pleased to issue a writ of certiorari and or any other appropriate writ, order or direction to declare the action of Respondent No. 2 in invocation of the Bank Guarantee dated 1st January 2020 bearing Bank Guarantee No. 006GT02200010017 issued by HDFC bank in favour of the Respondent No. 2 (Annexure E) as bad in law, illegal, and violative of Article 14 and 16 of the Constitution of India and further be pleased to direct the Respondent No. 2 to repay the amount of Rs. 10,00,000/- (Rupees Ten Lakh Only) to the Petitioner with appropriate interest thereon.

(C) Pending hearing of this petition, Your Lordships may be pleased to direct the Respondent No. 2 to immediately repay the amount of Rs. 10,00,000/- (Rupees Ten Lakh Only) to the Petitioner with appropriate interest thereon.

(D) Grant ad-interim relief in terms of prayer clause (C).

(E) Your Lordships may be pleased to grant such order and further orders/reliefs as may be deemed just and proper in the interest of Justice.”

2. The background of facts which has given rise to filing of present petition is that respondent no. 2 with an intention to enhance the production from the marginal nomination fields by infusion of new technology and expertise invited bids to undertake the operations to enhance the production of 17 onshore areas comprising of producing oil and gas fields by issuing Notice Inviting Offer (for short ‘NIO’) for Production Enhancement Operations in Marginal Nomination Fields. According to the petitioner, after understanding the details of work as provided in the Motera Field Docket (Ahmedabad Asset) as published by the respondent no. 2 in June, 2019 and Model Production Enhancement Contract (For short ‘MPEC’) submitted its e-bid for Contract Area No. ONGC/MNF/2019/CA-3/MOTERA on 20.01.2020. As required under Clause-13(IV) of the said NIO, petitioner submitted a bid bond of Rs. 10,00,000/- (Rupees Ten Lakhs only) in the form of Bank Guarantee dated 01.01.2020 issued by HDFC Bank in favour of respondent no. 2 in view of Article 18.3 of the said MPEC, it was stipulated that in case of crude oil and natural gas delivery point at common facilities operated by ONGC for further processing and transportation, the processing and transportation charges shall not be levied and such facility may be provided to the contractor subject to availability. It is further the say of the petitioner that on 14.05.2020, respondent-Corporation accepted petitioner's e-bid and respondent no. 3 issued a Notification of Award (NoA) in favour of petitioner for Contract Area CA-3 comprising of four (4) fields at Motera, South Viraj, Virgovindpura and Wamaj. According to the petitioner, in response to such NoA, the respondent-Corporation arranged filed visit for the petitioner and after concluding the said visit, the Director/s of petitioner were informed about lacunas observed by the authority at various sites. Petitioner also raised concerns about the operation of Motera GGS as contrary to what was provided in the said Motera Field Docket and petitioner was informed by the officers of the ONGC that Motera GGS was not a common facility in terms of Article 18.3 of MPEC and as such, the operational costs of Motera GGS will have to be borne by petitioner. It was also informed that about four (4) wells were mentioned that in the said Motera Field Docket and same will not be allocated to petitioner. In view of the aforesaid exchange of communication between petitioner and the respondent-Corporation, suddenly on 18.08.2021, respondent no. 3 vide Letter No. DL