A certificate issued by a non-Government concern can be accepted without verification, but care and caution should be exercised while acting on it.

A. PASAYAT, J.

( 1 ) PETITIONER questions acceptance of bid offered by opposite party No. 2 for supply of goods/equipments in respect of tender floated by the Chief Engineer, Hydrometry and Data Centre, Department of Water Resources, Bhubaneswar (opposite party No. 5) in respect of supply of equipments, namely, Bridge Out-Fits.

( 2 ) FACTUAL position sans unnecessary details is as follows :total number of the required equipments to be supplied in terms of the tender was 42. The work was styled as "package No. H. P. 5/98 (SW)". The tender floated was a national competitive bidding. Section II of the Bid Document related to "instructions to Bidder". Clause 13 related to documents required to establish bidder's eligibility and qualifications. The source of the fund has been indicated in the quotation. It has been stated that the Government of India has received/applied for a Loan/credit from the International Development Association/international Bank for Reconstruction and Development (in short, 'world Bank') in various currencies equivalent to US Dollars 142 Million towards the cost of the Hydrology Project. The documents comprising the Bid are described in Clause 9. Clause 13. 3 (b) is relevant for the purpose of this case. Same reads as follows :"13. 3. The documentary evidence of the Bidder's qualifications to perform the Contract if its bid is accepted, shall establish to the purchaser's satisfaction; (a ). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . (b) that the Bidder has the financial, technical, and production capability necessary to perform the Contract and meets the criteria outlined in the qualification requirements specified in Section VI. A. To this end, all bids submitted shall include the following information; (i) The legal status, place of registration and principal place of business of the company or firm or partnership, etc. ; (ii) Details of experience and past performance of the bidder on equipment offered and on those of similar nature within the past three/five years and details of current contract in hand and other commitments (suggested pro forma given in Section XI);"the bidder should have minimum eligibility criteria as follows : (i) a bidder should have executed structural fabrication works of Rs. 16 lakhs and above per annum; and (ii) he should have executed structural fabrication work of value of not less than Rs. 8 lakhs in single order during last five years, and shall produce documentary proof in support of the above.

( 3 ) ACCORDING to the petitioner, the certificate required to be filed should be by an Engineer belonging to any Government State or Central Government and any certificate given by non-Government agency or officer is of no consequence. For this purpose reliance is placed on another tender notice where Note to Clause 5. 7 reads as under :"note- The statement showing the value of existing commitments and on-going works as well as the stipulated period of completion remaining for each of the works listed, should be countersigned by the Engineer-in-charge, not below the rank of an Executive Engineer. "according to petitioner, opposite party No. 2 does not fulfil the requirement as the certificate furnished by it was given by a private party, the financial stability of which is in doubt. It is stated that opposite party No. 6 has given the certificate which is of no value as the taxation records would reveal that opposite party No. 2 neither had the capacity nor the financial stability to execute the work and in any event in the taxation returns the transaction in respect of which certificate has been issued has not been reflected.

( 4 ) IN the counter-affidavit filed by the opposite parties 2 and 3 to 5 it has been stated that the Bridge is a time bound project and has been started with the World Bank Assistance from 1995. It is not a requirement that only certificate of a Government Officer not below the Rank of an Executive Engineer under any Government Department has to be accepted. In fact