The court emphasized the importance of adhering to essential tender conditions and minimal judicial interference in matters of government contracts, upholding the Tender Committee's decision to reject the technical bid due to non-compliance with the prescribed format for bid capacity calculation.

JUDGMENT

Suman Shyam, J. - Heard Mr. N. Dutta, learned senior counsel assisted by Mr. N.N.B. Choudhury, learned counsel appearing for the writ petitioner. Also heard Mr. A. Dasgupta, learned senior counsel assisted by Mr. G. Goswami, learned Standing Counsel, N.F. Railways authorities i.e. respondents Nos 2 and 3 and Mr. K.N. Choudhury, learned senior counsel assisted by Mr. R.M. Deka, learned counsel representing the respondent no. 5. None appears for the respondent no.1 Union of India. The name of the respondent no. 4 has been struck of by the order dated 10-11-2020 passed by this Court.

2. Considering the urgency expressed in this matter and as agreed to by the learned counsel for all the parties, this writ petition is being taken up for disposal at the stage of admission hearing.

3. The minutes of the Tender Committee meeting held on 18/06/2020 rejecting the technical bid submitted by the petitioner has been assailed in the present writ petition, interalia, on the ground that the decision of the Tender Committee is not only arbitrary and illegal but the same is also in violation of the order dated 03/06/2020 passed by this Court in WP(C) No. 1897/2020.

4. The facts necessary for disposal of this writ petition are briefly narrated herein below :-

(i) The North East Frontier Railway (N.F. Railway), through the respondent No. 3, had issued Tender Notice dated 17/12/2019 bearing No. Con.2019/DEC/05, inviting bids, in two parts, from reputed contractor(s)/firm(s) for executing as many as 4 (four) different contractual works. The Joint Venture (JV) of the writ petitioner had submitted its bid in respect of three tenders which were identical in nature including tender no. CE/Con/NA/EMB/2019/DEC/05/RT-I for the work "Earthwork in formation for making Railway embankment, construction of minor bridges, blanketing work, construction of RCC drain and all other connected ancillary works between Km 251.40 to 277.00 between New Bongaigaon (NBQ) Agithori (AGT) BG doubling project". The tender value of the contract was Rs. 68,61,09,256.68p and the period of completion was 18 months. The writ petitioner JV had also submitted its bid in respect of another tender bearing No. CE/CON/NA/EM/B/2019/06/RT-1, included in the Tender Notice dated 17-12-2019. However, in the present case, we are concerned only with the tender no. CE/Con/N-A/EMB/2019/DEC/05/RT-I and, therefore, it would not be necessary to refer to the particulars of the other tender.

(ii) It appears from the record that for this tender, there were four bidders in total. The technical bids were opened on 14/02/2020. After examining the technocommercial bids, the Tender Evaluation Committee had finalized the same and uploaded its decision on 28/02/2020, whereby, the technical bid submitted by the writ petitioner was shown to be non-responsive due to "negative bid capacity". It appears that the writ petitioner's technical bid was rejected on similar grounds in respect of Tender No. CE/CON/N-A/EM/B/2019/06/RT-1 as well.

(iii) Aggrieved by the aforesaid decision of the Tender Evaluation Committee, the petitioner had earler approached this Court by filing two writ petitions being WP(C) 1897/2020 and W.P.(c) No 1900/2020 pertaining to the contract Nos. "CE/Con/NA/EMB/2019/DEC/05/RT-1" and "CE/CON/N-A/EM/B/2019/06/RT-1" respectively. The basic grievance expressed in the aforesaid writ petitions was to the effect that the N.F.Railway authorities had failed to take into account all the documents submitted by the petitioner along with its tender indicating the total value of the work executed by it during the relevant period for the purpose of calculating the "bid capacity" and therefore, the decision of the Tender Committee was erroneous. It was also contended that the private respondent having failed to register itself in the IREPS portal of the department, its technical bid was also liable to be rejected on the ground of non-conformity with the mandatory condition contained in clause -8 of the Tend