The central legal point established in the judgment is the requirement for strict compliance with essential conditions stipulated in the tender terms, particularly the submission of a Net Worth Certificate issued by a Chartered Accountant.

JUDGMENT

Sanjay Yadav, J. - Petitioner, a Company registered under the Companies Act, 1956, having suffered rejection of its bid application for lease of group of sand quarry in District Umaria, has filed this writ petition. The rejection of bid application is for non-adherence of essential condition i.e. Net Worth Certificate issued by the Chartered Accountant.

2. Relevant facts briefly are that the respondent/M.P. State Mining Corporation Ltd. issued Notice Inviting Tender (referred as 'NIT') for E-tender of sand quarries situated in District Umaria on 07.10.2019. The initial upset price was fixed at Rs.10,62,50,000/- (Rupees Ten Crores Sixty Two Lakhs Fifty Thousand only) for the quantity of 850000 Sq. Mts. of sand at the rate of Rs.125/- per cubic meter. The tender bid was to be submitted in two parts, viz., Technical Bid and Financial Bid. The NIT was published on 07.10.2019. It was available for download from 08.10.2019 onwards. The online submission of bids were to be done between 17.10.2019 to 08.11.2019 till 5 p.m. which was later extended by further 15 days to 26.11.2019 till 5 p.m. The Technical Bid was scheduled to be opened on 02.12.2019 and the Financial Bid was re-scheduled to be opened on 07.12.2019.

3. The NIT stipulated various essential conditions to be adhered to by respective bidders. One such condition around which centres the controversy raised in this petition, contained in Clause 5 and 6(v)( )(i) & (ii) of the NIT which stipulates that where the initial upset price is in excess of Rs.10 crores, the applicant along with the technical bid shall furnish a Net Worth Certificate by the Chartered Accountant showing the net worth of applicant for the current financial year i.e. 2018-19 or 2017-18, as the case may be. Such net worth shall be of 'stand-alone' and shall be on the basis of audit account and that for qualifying in the technical bid, the applicant should have a minimum net worth of 50% of the advertised initial upset price.

4. That, Clause 5 and Clause 6(v)( )(i) & (ii) of the NIT which mandate the relevant documents to be uploaded with the E-tender bid application, are reproduced for ready reference :

5. It is further borne out from the NIT dated 05.10.2019 that a pre-bid meeting was held on 15.10.2019 and 16.10.2019 which resolved queries and the doubts raised by the prospective participants. As regard to the Net Worth Certificate, it was reiterated that it must be issued by the Chartered Accountant and a condition precedent i.e. an essential condition. The query and its resolution as regard to furnishing the net worth certificate finds at Serial No.5 and 17 which was made known to respective participants. They are reproduced for ready reference.

6. It is pertinent to note that NIT also contained Clause 27 which stipulated the opportunity for correction in the tender documents before last date of submission.

7. The petitioner uploaded the tender documents on 22.11.2019. Evidently, the petitioner uploaded balance sheet of the Company dated 31.08.2019 instead of Net Worth Certificate issued by the Chartered Accountant.

8. That, on 02.12.2019, the petitioner received an auto generated mail from the e-procurement system informing that its bid has been opened and updated summary by the duly constituted committee which has admitted the bid. The said communication as evident therefrom is titled under subject as regard to Bid Opening for the tender. Thereafter, the petitioner received another auto generated communication dated 05.12.2019 informing the petitioner that during technical evaluation by the duly constituted committee, the petitioner was found disqualified for financial opening since net worth certificate was not submitted by him.

9. Challenging the rejection order, precise submission made on behalf of the petitioner is that in absence of any specific format of the Net Worth Certificate in the NIT, the balance sheet duly authenticated by the Chartered Accountant disclosing the stand-alone ne