JUDGMENT :

Sindhu Sharma, J.-The office of Executive Engineer PWD (R&B), Construction Division No.II Jammu issued a fresh short notice inviting tender e-NIT No. 1/Smart City/2021-22/Div.-2 dated 05.06.2021 requesting for proposal for Engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contract for junction improvements in Jammu City. The petitioner-Company M/s TBA Infrastructure Pvt. Ltd. being eligible submitted its bid both technical as well as financial online on 19.06.2021. As per the bid summary, the date and time of opening the technical bid was to be 22.06.2021 at 13:00 Hours in the office of Chief Engineer PWD (R&B) Department, Jammu, the date and time of the financial bid was to be notified after the evaluation of the technical bid.

2. The Technical Evaluation Committee opened the technical bid of the bidders (1) M/s TBA Infrastructure; (2) M/s Harcharan Dass Gupta; (3) RSB Projects Limited; & (4) MG Contractors Pvt. Ltd. for their evaluation on 15.07.2021. Upon the technical evaluation of the bids, the technical bid of the petitioner-M/s TBA Infrastructure was rejected as non-responsive and the same was uploaded on the portal http://jktenders.gov.in on 15th of July, 2021. As the bid of the petitioner was rejected, therefore, the petitioner requested for reviewing the decision regarding its bid and also for providing reasons for rejecting the technical bid vide letter dated 15.07.2021.

3. In response to the letter of the petitioner dated 15.07.2021, Chief Engineer PW (R&B) Department/respondent No. 3 vide his letter dated 19.07.2021 informed the petitioner that its bid was found to be non-responsive on account of the fact that the petitioner had submitted the financial cost of the bid in hard copy in appendix 3 on Page-438 of the request for proposal (RFP). The members of Technical Evaluation Committee during the technical evaluation of the bids were of the unanimous opinion that if the bid of the petitioner would be considered, it would be in gross violation of point No. 2 of the note in appendix 3 which clearly states that “this format is to be filed online. Any hard copy submission of the financial bid shall lead it to the rejection of the bid”.

4. The financial bid of the other eligible bidders were opened on 16.07.2021 and on evaluation, M/S RSB Projects Ltd. was declared as the lowest bidder having quoted a price of Rs. 29,95,00000/- (Rupees Twenty Nine Crore and Ninety Five Lacs only).

5. The petitioner is aggrieved of rejection of its technical bid and also for the reasons assigned for its rejection vide letter dated 19.07.2021, as being contrary to the facts, therefore, the same is unsustainable on the following grounds:-

(i) According to the petitioner, Appendix-3 appearing at Page No. 438 of the RFP formed a part of the technical bid and it required the bidder to fill up the same online and quote his price inclusive of all taxes. The requirement of tender document was to fill up this appendix by quoting his bid price online, therefore, it is submitted that if there was no requirement of quoting the bid price as per appendix-3 it would not have formed part of bidding document/technical document.

(ii) The petitioner had submitted its bid online in all respects and no part of it was provided in hard copy and, therefore, was not in violation of Point No. 2 note in Appendix-3 which is the reason assigned for rejecting his bid.

(iii) The petitioner had quoted the bid price in Appendix-3 of the Technical bid but the same was submitted online in the financial part also as the bid document required the bidder to quote his bid in Appendix-3 as well as financial part, therefore, the petitioner acted in strict compliance of the bidding document is unsustainable on whimsical grounds and the same has also been rejected on mala fide grounds.

(iv) It is also contended that the petitioner has quoted its bid price of Rupees