JUDGMENT :

J. NISHA BANU, J.

Prayer: Writ Petition filed under Article 226 of the Constitution of India praying to issue a Writ of Certiorarified Mandamus, to call for the entire records of the impugned order dated 13.02.2024 passed by the 1st respondent vide G.O. (D) No. 3, rejecting the appeal filed by the petitioner under Section 11 of the Tamil Nadu Transparency in Tender Act, challenging rejection of the technical bid submitted by the petitioner in the Tender Ref. No. CE/IT and RAPDRP No. 06 to 11/2023-24 as arbitrary, malafide and perverse and to consequently direct the 3rd respondent to declare the petitioner as technically qualified bidder allowing the evaluation of its financial bid for further evaluation in the tender.

1. This Writ Petition is filed by M/s. Overseas Infrastructure Alliance (India) Private Limited against the impugned order in appeal dated 13.02.2024 passed by the first respondent Government of Tamil Nadu vide G.O. (D) No 3. The impugned order rejected the appeal of the petitioner preferred under Section 11 of The Tamil Nadu Transparency in Tenders Act, 1998. Earlier, the above appeal came to be filed against the rejection of the technical bid submitted by the petitioner in Tender Ref No CE/IT and RAPDRP Nos.06 to 11/2023-24 before the 3rd respondent Chief Engineer, TANGEDCO.

2. The impugned order dated 13.02.2024, after observing that the petitioner herein failed to submit the Electrical Contractor License issued by anyone State of India or abroad as required under the tender specifications, upheld the order of the 3rd respondent rejecting the bid of the petitioner and dismissed the appeal of the petitioner.

3. It is the grievance of the petitioner that, according to them the impugned order dated 13.02.2024 of the first respondent is arbitrary, mala-fide and perverse and accordingly, prayed for setting aside the impugned order dated 13.02.2024 and consequently declare the petitioner as technically qualified bidder and allow the evaluation of the financial bid of the petitioner for the further evaluation of the tender.

4. Background: The petitioner is an infrastructure company, incorporated in India with the Registrar of Companies, Mumbai and hold over 20 years of experience in power sector. Before participating in the tender, they had executed 11 power projects with an aggregate value of 253 million US dollars (Rs. 2104 Crores approx) across 6 countries in the Africa continent with most of the projects sponsored by the Government of India.

5. The Ministry of Power, Government of India launched Revamped Distribution Sector Scheme (RDSS) with the objectives to improve the quality, reliability and affordability of power supply to consumers through a financially sustainable and operationally efficient Distribution Sector and to reduce the line losses by enhancing the Distribution Infrastructure. Works include the strengthening and modernising the system as well as measures for Loss reduction of the system.

6. Upon approval of the Scheme by the Ministry of Power, Government of India and the Government of Tamil Nadu and in furtherance of the Resolution passed by the Board of TANGEDCO, the 2nd respondent floated tenders for work across various districts of Tamil Nadu in the form of many packages. The tender follows a single stage tender consisting of Two-envelope bidding process. The first envelope is Technical Part and the second envelope is Financial Part.

7. The tender was first floated during January, 2023. In the original tender, the experience clause excluded the experiences accumulated by the participants outside India. Aggrieved by the clause, the petitioner who had not done any project in India but had a wealth of experience outside India had filed a Writ Petition in WP No 13806 of 2023 in the nature of Public Interest Litigation before this court. The first bench of this Court was pleased to allow the petition vide Order dated 27.04.2023 and directed the 3rd respondent to allow the petitioner to submit the