The importance of recording reasons for decisions and the consequences of submitting false/fabricated/bogus documents as per the IT Act, 2000.

JUDGMENT :

B.R. SARANGI, J.

1. The Superintending Engineer, Rural Works Circle, Cuttackopposite party no.3 on behalf of State of Odisha-opposite party no.1 through e-procurement portal invited National Competitive Bidding (NCB) for works under Mukhya Mantri Sadak Yojana (MMSY) and accordingly published notice inviting tender vide Tender Online RWC10 dated 01.07.2015. As per the NCB, 42 works under various divisions have been notified. The petitioner participated in three of such works under Cuttack Division at serial nos.4, 9 and 13, namely, "construction and maintenance of Sarakor to Sutinda Road under MMSY for 2015-16 in the district of Cuttack", "construction and maintenance of PWD Road to Nakhara Road under MMSY for 2015-16 in the district of Cuttack" and "construction and maintenance of Kakatpur Branch Canal to Arada Road under MMSY for 2015-16 in the district of Cuttack" with a time of completion of nine calendar months. As per such advertisement, the approximate cost has been fixed at Rs.284.56, 281.51 and 240.07 lakhs respectively. In respect of each of the work, EMD has been fixed to Rs.2.85, Rs.2.82 and Rs.2.41 lakhs respectively and the class of contractors has been specified for each of the work, i.e., 'A Class' and 'Special Class' contractors. As per the Detailed Tender Call Notice (DTCN), the process of evaluation of the tender comprises of two stages, i.e., technical bid evaluation and financial bid evaluation. The evaluation procedure has been prescribed at clause7 of the DTCN which mandates that the technical evaluation of all the bids shall be carried out as per the information furnished by the bidder and upon such evaluation, the procurement officer would evaluate the bid and finalize the responsive bidders.

2. Thereafter, the technical bid of the bidders shall be opened on 11.08.2015 at 11.00 AM and financial bid on 20.08.2015 at 11.00 A.M. as prescribed in the DTCN itself. At the time of evaluation of the technical bid, if any clarification is required, then the procurement officer would ask the bidder to clarify the same within a maximum period of 7 days, failing which, the technical bid will be evaluated on its own merit. As per the terms of the notice inviting tender, after the technical evaluation of the bids, the financial bid of the qualified bidders was evaluated by the procurement officer and as per result of such evaluation, the three bids submitted by the petitioner was declared to be responsive, which would be evident from the letter dated 19.08.2015 of opposite party no.3.

3. The financial bid submitted by the petitioner in respect of all the three works were opened and the price offered by the petitioner has been evaluated as the most competitive offer and the petitioner was declared as L1 in respect of all the three tenders, which would be evident from the finance bid opening summary. Though the petitioner was awaiting letter of acceptance of his bid on the basis of the financial bid evaluation, he has received a letter dated 30.09.2015 from opposite party no.3, wherein it has been stated that the certificate showing execution of similar nature of work submitted by him, upon verification, is found to be forged and accordingly he has been called upon to show cause as to why the EMD/Bid amount submitted by him shall not be forfeited and other punitive measures shall not be imposed upon him. In response to the same, the petitioner filed show cause reply denying the allegations made against him and asserted that the certificate submitted by him is genuine and the same has been issued by the competent authority, i.e., Executive Engineer, Rural Works Division, Cuttack-opposite party no.4 vide letter dated 10.08.2012 and the petitioner also submitted the original certificate before opposite party no.3 for its verification and prayed for award of the works in his favour. But, opposite party no.3 vide letter dated 16.11.2015 forfeited the EMD/Bid security amount of Rs.8,08,000/ deposited by the petitioner