Point of Law: Order of settlement - Tender Process - The only other valid bidder, Society did not challenge order of settlement - In view of such position, assailment made on aspect of neighbourhood by two petitioners herein whose bids met fate of disqualification, which in the considered view of this Court are on valid grounds, should fail and cannot be countenanced.

JUDGMENT :

In both the writ petitions, W.P.(C) No. 763/2021 and W.P.(C) No. 2477/2021, preferred under Article 226 of the Constitution of India, the subject-matter of challenge is an order of settlement dated 22.01.2021, whereby, No. 38 Morisuti Fishery in Morigaon District [‘the Morisuti Fishery’, for short] has been settled with the respondent M/s 129 No. Haria Dablang Meen Samabai Samity Ltd. [‘the respondent society’, for short], impleaded as respondent no. 5 and the respondent no. 6 respectively in the two writ petitions, for a period of 7 [seven] years at its offered bid value of Rs. 38,85,000/- i.e. Rs. 5,55,000/- per annum w.e.f. the date of handing over possession of the Morisuti Fishery, subject to observance of all required formalities as laid down in the Assam Fishery Rules, 1953, as amended [‘the Fishery Rules’, for short]. By the same order of settlement dated 22.01.2021, the settling authority has declared both the bids submitted by the two writ petitioners, both registered cooperative societies, as non-compliant to the Notice Inviting Tender dated 02.01.2020.

2. For appreciation of the issues raised in these two writ petitions, it may be useful to state the background facts, in brief, sans the unnecessary details. By a Notice Inviting Tender [‘NIT’, for short] dated 02.01.2020, the Deputy Commissioner, Morigaon invited sealed bids for settlement of the Morisuti Fishery for a period of 7 [seven] years from the date of settlement by the Fishery Department. The said NIT mentioned that the sealed bids would be received in the office of the Deputy Commissioner, Morigaon upto 02-00 p.m. on 20.01.2020. As per the terms and conditions of the NIT, a number of documents were required to be submitted along with the sealed bid. Amongst the certificates/documents which were required to be submitted along with the sealed bid by a bidder the documents viz. (a) fishing experience certificate; (b) bakijai clearance certificate from the Deputy Commissioner; (c) photocopy of PAN card issued by the Income Tax Department, were included. The NIT had further prescribed that 15% of the minimum annual revenue fixed by the Government for the 1st year had to be deposited by the bidder as security deposit in the form of call deposit.

3. In response to the NIT, 6 [six] nos. of bidders, all registered societies, had submitted their bids quoting different bid values in total as well as year-wise. After expiry of the time of submission of the bid, the bids were opened. After organizing the tender papers submitted by all the participating bidders, the Tender Committee, constituted by the Deputy Commissioner, Morigaon, scrutinized the same. After scrutinization, a comparative statement was prepared by the Tender Committee keeping in view the terms and conditions of the NIT dated 02.01.2020. A chart of the bid values, offered by the participating bidders in descending order, was also prepared. The bid values quoted by the 6 [six] participating bidders were found as under :-

4. The Tender Committee besides mentioning the offered bid values, scrutinized the certificates/documents directed to be submitted with the bid as per Clause no. 4 of the NIT and made their remarks in respect of each of such certificates/documents in the respective columns in the comparative statement. The tender papers along with the comparative statement, were thereafter, forwarded by the Deputy Commissioner, Morigaon to the State Government by a let