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IN THE HIGH COURT OF MADHYA PRADESH AT JABALPUR
SANJEEV SACHDEVA,CJ, VINAY SARAF
Gera Green Innovation – Appellant
Versus
Northern Coalfields Limited – Respondent
Judgment :
Sanjeev Sachdeva, J.
1. Petitioner inter alia seeks quashing of Letter of Acceptance dated 06.08.2025, whereby the entire tender has been awarded to Respondent No. 3. Petitioner seeks reconsideration of the award of tender by applying the correct Public Procurement Policy for Micro and Small Enterprises (MSE) Order, 2012 thereby awarding 75% of the work to the Petitioner (L1) and 25% to the L2 (MSE, other than Respondent No. 3).
2. Respondent No. 1 — Northern Coalfields Limited (NCL), issued an e-tender for 62.05 lakh tonnes of coal transportation from specified seams to Spur-I Siding, including loading into trucks / wagons, for two years. The result of the tender was declared on the website of GeM and the Bid submitted by the Petitioner was declared as L1 (lowest) in the financial evaluation. However, the tender was awarded to Respondent No. 3 i.e. the L2 bidder by treating it as an MSE within a price band of L1 + 15% under the Public Procurement Policy for Micro and Small Enterprises (MSE) Order, 2012 (hereinafter referred to as the MSE Order 2012.
3. Petitioner has impugned the award of tender to Respondent No. 3 on the ground that it could not have been treated as an MSE
The court upheld that 100% reservation for MSEs in public procurement is valid under the MSE Policy, rejecting claims of arbitrariness towards tender selection processes.
The court emphasized the importance of adhering to tender conditions and equitable distribution under the MSE Policy, allowing for judicial intervention only in cases of illegality.
(1) Mandatory procurement by Government – There is no mandatory minimum procurement ‘right’ of an individual MSE.(2) Judicial Review – Power of judicial review in matters concerning implementation of....
The MSE policy does not apply to works contracts or when the MSE does not provide the core services, rendering preferential treatment arbitrary.
The exemption for Micro and Small Enterprises under the Public Procurement Policy does not apply to work contracts, as clarified by the Ministry of MSME.
The court established that significant deviations from tender guidelines and arbitrary evaluation criteria violate the principles of fairness and proportionality under Article 14 of the Constitution.
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