ORDER :

SUSHRUT ARVIND DHARMADHIKARI, CJ.

Challenging certain conditions imposed in the e-Tender dated 3.3.2026 for Live Webcasting in the Polling Stations on the day of Polling and Recording on the day of Counting for the General Elections to Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly, 2026, the present writ petition is filed.

2.1. The case of the petitioner is that the petitioner is a company incorporated under the Companies Act and is engaged in providing large-scale election webcasting and surveillance services across India and has substantial experience in executing similar assignments in several States, including Tamil Nadu, and has cumulatively deployed more than 1,80,000 cameras for polling station webcasting and more than 8,000 CCTV cameras in counting centres over the past seven years.

2.2. It is further stated that the impugned tender prescribes highly restrictive eligibility conditions which effectively exclude the petitioner and several other technically competent bidders from participating in the tender. The tender mandates that bidders must possess an average annual turnover of Rs.100 Crores during the last three financial years and also prohibits participation through Joint Venture or Consortium. The petitioner submits that these conditions are arbitrary, disproportionate and contrary to established procurement norms.

2.3. It is averred that the estimated value of the project is approximately Rs.120 Crores, whereas the prescribed turnover requirement is Rs.100 Crores average annual turnover, which is excessive and inconsistent with prevailing procurement guidelines. Further, previous election webcasting tenders in Tamil Nadu and other States have permitted consortium participation and adopted more reasonable turnover criteria. Despite the petitioner submitting representations and pre-bid queries requesting rationalisation of the turnover requirement and permission for consortium participation, the respondents rejected the same mechanically without assigning any reasons. Hence this Writ Petition.

3.1. Learned Senior Counsel appearing on behalf of the petitioner submitted that the eligibility criteria stipulating requirement of Rs.100 Crores average annual turnover is disproportionate to the nature and scope of the project and is, therefore, liable to be struck down. The said condition restricts technically competent persons from participating in the tender process, merely on financial criteria, is, therefore, violative of the principles of natural justice and the principles enshrined in Article 14 of the Constitution of India, by destroying the level playing field among the technically qualified persons as the financial eligibility requirement of Rs.100 Crores average annual turnover has no rational nexus to the object of the present tender.

3.2. It is further submitted that the impugned turnover criteria cannot be made applicable to the technically qualified MSME entities and the petitioner being a technically qualified MSME entity, it cannot be excluded from participation solely on the basis of disproportionately high turnover criteria alone.

3.3. The next plank of argument of learned Senior Counsel for the petitioner is that the impugned condition prohibiting consortiums is highly restrictive and such restriction would only allow one or two entities in the industry to be benefitted by the tender process and eliminating almost all competitors. In other words, he submitted that the impugned tender conditions appear to be tailor-made to restrict participation to a very small number of participants, thereby defeating the objective of competitive tendering.

3.4. It is further submitted that in the Assam Elections, 2026 and West Bengal Elections, 2026, the turnover requirement is much less compared to Tamil Nadu. For Assam Elections, the annual turnover stipulated is minimum Rs.40 Crores and for West Bengal the turnover stipulated is cumulative turnover of Rs.150 crores for last three financial years and, therefore, there is gross dis