The main legal point established in the judgment is that, under the Tamil Nadu Transparency in Tenders Act, the accepted rate and the year of manufacture of vehicles are crucial factors in the evaluation and award of tenders.

Considering the commonality of the issue involved, all these writ petitions have been taken up together and disposed of by a common order.

2. The respondents have called for tenders for "Hiring of water tanker lorries of 16000 litres, 9000 litres and 6000 litres capacity on contract basis for three years". This was for providing water to the general public in the unserved areas, slums and tail end ares as well as the bulk consumers by way of mobile water supply. After following the procedure, the respondents received 87 Nos. for 16000 litres capacity tanker lorries, 750 Nos. for 9000 litres capacity tanker lorries and 310 Nos. for 6000 litres capacity tanker lorries. Clause 2 of the tender notice speaks about the award of the work order, which reads as under:

"The tender will be evaluated as per the Tamil Nadu Transparency in Tenders Act, 1998 and Rules thereunder Vehicles in the descending order of year of manufacture viz., from 2017, 2016, 2015 ... to 2010 will be considered. The lowest rate quoted by the tenderer will be considered for award of contract. Willingness will be asked for from the other participated tenderers for accepted rate. Those who have offered their willingness for the accepted rate will be selected in the above order."

3. Chapter 7 of the Tamil Nadu Transparency in Tenders Rules, 2000 deals with the offer and award of tenders in special cases in which we are concerned with Rules 31(1) and 31(2), which are provided hereunder:

"31. Procurement in Special Cases: In the case of purchase of goods where the quantity offered at the lowest price is less than the total quantity required, the Tender Accepting Authority may, after placing orders with the lowest evaluated tenderer for the entire quantity offered by such tenderer for the entire quantity offered by such tenderer subject to his ability to supply, adopt either or both of the following procedures to procure the balance quantity.

(1) Negotiate with the next lowest tenderers in strict ascending order of evaluated price and require them to match the price offered by the lowest evaluated tenderer and place orders until the entire quantity required is ordered; or

(2) Require all the other eligible tenderers who participated in the tender and offered a price higher than that offered by the lowest evaluated tenderer, to submit sealed offers of the quantity they would be willing to supply at the price quoted by the lowest evaluated tenderer, and thereafter place orders for the remaining required quantity with all those who match the lowest evaluated price such that those who bid lower prices in the original tender get a higher priority for supply."

4. The petitioner in W.P.No.9754 of 2017 is L5 insofar as 6000 litres capacity lorry tanker is concerned. His two vehicles are of the manufacturing year 2017. The petitioners in W.P.Nos.13025 to 13030 of 2017 are having 15 tanker lorries for both 6000 litres and 9000 litres. We are not concerned with the tender notification with reference to 16000 litres tanker lorries.

5. Insofar as 6000 litres capacity tanker lorries are concerned, there was only one L1 for a sum of Rs.269/-. In that, the L2 tenderers alone were called for towards the price negotiation after accepting the lowest tender. The total requirement for the 6000 litres capacity is about 180 tanker lorries. 75 of the L2 tenderers have got the vehicles manufactured in the year 2017. However, except the L2 tenderers, other tenderers have not been called for.

6. Similarly, for the 9000 litres capacity, the requirement is about 323 vehicles. Here again, only L2 tenderers have been called for price negotiation. Of the successful tenderers in this category, 294 have got the vehicles registration of the year 2017. These 294 L2 tenderers for 9000 litres capacity tanker lorries and 74 tenderers for 6000 litres capacity tanker lorries have accepted the lowest offer made by L1 in the respective categories. These are all the basic facts governing the case.

7. Learned couns