ORDER :

1. The present writ petition has been filed by the petitioner-mpany challenging acceptance of technical bid of private respondent-M-Tech Innovations Ltd. for awarding the contract by Transport Department of Government of Rajasthan for issuance of Smart Card Based Vehicle Registration Certificate and driving licence.

2. The petitioner-company has made following prayers in the writ petition:-

“(i) quash and set aside the Section VII, particularly Clause 7.1.5 of the RFP to the extend where it provides that the right of first appeal is before the Learned Joint Secretary, Transport Department and the right of second appeal is before the Learned Principal Secretary, Transport Department.

(ii) Set aside the decision dated 29.05.2018 of Respondent No. 2 whereby bid of Respondent No. 3 has been accepted in the Technical Rounds by either overlooking material defects suffered by it or by permitting rectification thereof;

(iii) Direct Respondent No. 2 to re-evaluate technical bids on the basis of bids as they had existed on the last date for submission of bids and by strictly applying material requirement and pre-qualification criteria under the RFP dated 18.10.2017;

(iv) Pass such other Orders or Directions as it may deem fit.”

3. This Court on 25.07.2018 after hearing counsel for both the parties came to the conclusion that the appeal provided under the Rajasthan Transparency in Public Procurement Act, 2012 before the Joint Secretary, who is an Officer of subordinate to the Procuring Authority and as such the remedy as available under Clause 7.1.5 of the Request for Proposal (hereinafter referred as “RFP”), was not an efficacious remedy to the petitioner. The Court observed that the issues raised in the writ petition will be examined by this Court and as such the prayer (i) of the writ petition need not to be examined in the present petition.

4. This Court had further passed an interim order on 25.07.2018 that no work order was to be issued by the State Government in favour of the respondent No. 3 pursuant to Letter of Intent (LOI).

5. The brief facts of the case are that on 18.10.2017, the Transport Department, Government of Rajasthan issued a Request for Proposal (hereinafter referred as “RFP”) for selection of bidder for issuance of smart card based vehicle registration certificate and driving licence in the State of Rajasthan.

6. The RFP laid down several technical criteria and provided that only the bids which qualified the technical/eligibility criteria, shall be eligible for evaluation of financial bids. The RFP provided for submission of quaries by the bidders upto 26.10.2017 and on 27.10.2017, a pre-bid meeting was held in the Office of Transport Commissioner, Government of Rajasthan. The Department subsequent, to pre-bid meeting issued letter/reply to pre-bid quaries and further a corrigendum dt.17.04.2018 issued by the Transport Department to make modifications in the bidding documents. The Department after issuing certain corrigendum postponing the date of submission of the tenders, the final date of tender submission was finalised to be 28.05.2018.

7. The petitioner has pleaded in the writ petition that the four companies M/s Rosmerta Technologies Ltd., M/s M-Tech Innovations Pvt. Ltd., M/s MCT Cards and Technology Pvt. Ltd., M/s Madras Security Printers Pvt. Ltd. and two other consortia comprising of (i) M/s Smartchip Pvt. Ltd. M/s ITI LIMITED PALAKKAD and (ii) M/s Silver Touch Technologies Ltd. and M/s ESmart System Pvt. Ltd. submitted their bids on 28.05.2018.

8. The petitioner has pleaded in the petition that the Bid Evaluation Committee sought clarifications from the bidders under the provisions of Clause 4.4, 4.5 and 4.6 of the RFP and last date of submission by the bidders for clarification was 18.06.2018.

9. The petitioner has pleaded in the petition that on 18.06.2018 the following quaries were sought from the different bidders:-

Sr. No. Company Clarifications sought

1. M/s ITI Ltd. 1. M/s ITI Ltd. was requested to s