IMPORTANT POINT
The court emphasized the necessity of providing a reasonable opportunity of hearing before debarment under Section 46(5) of the RTPP Act.

ORDER :

1. This bunch of writ petitions involving identical controversy are being decided by this common order.

2. Briefly stated, the facts of the case are that the petitioner is a company, registered under the Companies Act, 1956 engaged in the business of Construction Work and Engineering Contracts and Designs and as such specialises in Water Supply and Sewage Treatment Plants. The respondent authorities floated various tenders namely - NIT no. 01/2023-24 dt. 05.05.23 (Ajmer), NIT no. 12/2023-24 dt. 05.05.23 (Jodhpur), NIT no. 02/2023-24 dt. 04.05.23 (Ajmer), NIT no. 03/2023-24 dt. 05.05.23 (Udaipur), NIT no. 02/2023-24 dt. 05.05.23 (Bharatpur), NIT no. 04/2023-24 dt. 07.05.23 (Bharatpur), NIT no. 14/2023-24 dt. 29.05.23 (Kota) for respective works. Thereafter, the petitioner along with submission of the tender offers also submitted bank guarantees for the respective NITs with the Respondents as part of a bid security in terms of Rule 42 of the RTPP Rules, 2013.

After submission of the bids for respective NITs, a complaint was received by the Respondent Authorities, alleging mis-declaration and incorrect information provided with respect to insufficient bidding capacity of the Petitioner in the respective NITs. Upon taking cognizance of such complaint, by way of minutes of meeting of Bid Evaluation Committee, the petitioner was declared as non-responsive in the respective NITs and against these orders, appeals were preferred the petitioner and the respective appeals were allowed and the Petitioner was declared as responsive for opening of its financial bids and further evaluation in the respective NITs. Meanwhile, during the entire process of procuring the tender work, the bank guarantees submitted by the petitioner for the respective NITs were extended for some time. Subsequently, the decision was taken by the respondent authorities to annul the procurement process for the respective works against the NITs and further, to re-invite the bids. However, the Bank Guarantees submitted by the petitioner in pursuance of the respective NITs remained in the custody of the Respondent Authorities post-cancellation of the entire procurement process for the respective works. Thereafter, the Petitioner preferred representations to the Respondent Department praying therein that since the procurement process has been annulled, the respective bank guarantees be released at the earliest. Subsequently, the Respondent authorities released the bank guarantees which were submitted in pursuance to NIT no. 02/2023-24 dt. 05.05.23 (Bharatpur), NIT no. 04/2023-24 dt. 07.05.23 (Bharatpur); however, the respondent authorities denied to release the rest of the bank guarantees submitted by the petitioner qua other NITs while asking the petitioner to further extend these bank guarantees. Thereafter, the Finance Committee of the Rajasthan Water Supply & Sewerage Management Board, Jaipur in its 883rd meeting held on 23.05.2024 (Signed on 14.06.2024), vide its Agenda Item Nos. 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22 and 23 decided to forfeit the respective bid security submitted by the petitioner in the respective NITs and also debarred the petitioner for a period of six months in future tender process. Thus, aggrieved by the same petitioner has filed these writ petitions.

3. Learned Senior Counsel for the petitioner submits that the impugned orders dated 23.05.2024 (Annexure-15 in SBCWP No.10284/2024), 23.05.2024 (Annexure-15 in SBCWP No.10286/2024), 23.05.2024 (Annexure-15 in SBCWP No.10290/2024), 24.06.2024 (Annexure-9&10 in SBCWP No.10382/2024), 24.06.2024 (Annexure-8 in SBCWP No.10383/2024), 24.06.2024 (Annexure-8 in SBCWP No.10386/2024), 22.06.2024 (Annexure-18 in SBCWP No.10616/2024), 22.06.2024 (Annexure-14 in SBCWP No.10617/2024), 22.06.2024 (Annexure-14 in SBCWP No.10621/2024 and 24.06.2024 (Annexure-20 in SBCWP No.10623/2024), have been passed by the respondent authorities in contravention of the provisions of sub-section (5) of the Section 46 of the Rajasthan Trans