1. Heard Mr. D. Das, learned Sr. Counsel assisted by Mr. H. Nath, learned counsel for the petitioners and Mr. B. Gogoi, learned Standing Counsel, Health Department, Govt. of Assam for the respondents.

2. All the writ petitions are based on identical facts, raising a common question of law. Hence, all the writ petitions were heard together and are being disposed of by this common order.

3. Question for consideration in this bunch of writ petitions is whether respondents were justified in cancelling the tender and going for re-tender on the ground that after technical evaluation only the petitioners remained as the single valid tenderer? Secondly, corollary to the above is the related question as to whether the concept of single tender warranting re-tender would be applicable to a situation where post technical evaluation only one tender remains in the fray as a valid tender?

4. Director of Health Services, Assam (Director) had issued E-tender notice on 26.09.2017 for providing patient diet services on contract basis for District Health Institutions under the Directorate of Health Services, Assam. It was mentioned that the tenders were required to be submitted online and would be of two bid system, technical bid and price bid. Only those tenders which were found technically responsive would be considered for price bid. As per the schedule mentioned in the E-tender notice, tender publishing date was 26.09.2017, starting from 4:00 p.m. onwards. Pre-bid meeting was scheduled at 2:00 p.m. on 04.10.2017; bid submission to commence from 11:00 a.m. of 10.10.2017 upto 2:00 p.m. of 23.10.2017; finally the bids were to be opened at 3:00 p.m. on 23.10.2017. Eligibility of bidders vis-à-vis technical bid were mentioned, one of which was having a valid license under the FoodSafetyandStandardsAct,2006. It was mentioned that right to short list/reject any or all the tenders and/or to accept the whole or any part of the tenders without assigning any reasons whatsoever would be vested upon the committee to be constituted by the Director of Health Services, Assam for the purpose.

5. In all, 32 bidders participated in the tender process, including the petitioners. Technical bids were opened and evaluated by a Technical Committee on 23.10.2017. Technical Committee comprised of Director of Health Services, Assam as the Chairperson; Deputy Secretary to the Govt. of Assam; Health Family Welfare Department; Addl. Director of Health Services (A), Assam; Senior Medical and Health Officer in the Directorate of Health Services, Assam; Designated Officer, Food Safety (Head quarter); and Senior Finance and Accounts Officer of the Directorate of Health Services’ Assam as Members of which Senior Finance and Accounts Officer to function as Member Secretary. At the time of technical evaluation, 20 bids were found to be technically responsive including the bids of the petitioners.

6. WP(C) No. 2751/2018 pertains to Nalbari district. In so far Nalbari district is concerned, five bids were found to be technically responsive out of which bid of the petitioner was found to be L2. L1 Smti. Anjali Das withdrew her bid alongwith L3 and L4, namely, Mrinmoy Das and Pasupati Das. Bid of L5, Ranjit Kaushik was rejected as invalid as he was disqualified in view of order dated 06.12.2017 passed by this Court in Writ Appeal No. 344/2017. Thus petitioner became L1 in Nalbari district and remained in the fray as the sole valid tenderer.

7. In WP(C) No. 2754/2018, which pertains to Goalpara district, six bids were found to be technically responsive. Bid of the petitioner was found to be L3. L1 Smt. Anjali Das, L2 Mrinmoy Das and L4 Pasupati Das withdrew their bids. Bid of L5 Sri Ranjit Kaushik was rejected as he was held to be disqualified by this Court in the order referred to above. Another bidder namely, Montu Mahanta was also disqualified. This left only the petitioner in the fray as the sole valid tenderer.

8. In WP(C) No. 2755/2018 the concerned district is Bongaigaon. Here