Government decisions related to tenders must adhere to established guidelines, ensuring fairness, justice, and reasonableness.

1. The National Highways Authority of India (for short 'the NHAI' ) is an Authority constituted under S.2(1) of the National Highways Authority of India Act, 1988 (for short 'the NHAI Act' ) for development, maintenance and management of national highways and other highways vested in it or entrusted to it by the Government.

2. The Central Government through the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (MORTH) by its notification dated 24-7-2014 in exercise of the powers conferred by S.5 of the National Highways Act, 1956 , entrusted to the State Government (Department of Public Works) various national highways including old national highways situated within the State for discharging the functions in relation to the execution of works pertaining to each of the national highways described in the said notification. The MORTH also issued guidelines on 31-3-2016 regarding procedures to be adopted for invitation of tenders and qualification of Contractors for execution of Road and Bridge works on National Highways and Centrally Financed Schemes modifying the earlier procedure dated 13-11-2014.

3. The Executive Engineer, Department of Public Works, National Highway Division, Jagdalpur floated MORTH e - Procurement Tender Notice dated 5-2-2016 inviting on - line financial bids on Item Rate Basis and technical bid in Standard Bidding Documents (SBD) from the contractors registered in A Class in Unified Registration System of PWD, Chhattisgarh and equivalent contractors of Central / State Government and their undertaking and unregistered contractors capable to execute the work i.e. NIT No.829 '“ Widening with 2 - lane + Paged Shoulders Reconstruction of Minor Bridges and Culverts and 4 - laning in Selected reach in km.299.00 to 316.880 of NH - 63 (Old NH - 43) in the State of Chhattisgarh. The estimated amount of contract was Rs.6312.16 lacs providing for the time schedule. In response to the e - procurement tender notice, the petitioner submitted its bid for the said work and the petitioner - s bid was evaluated by the Evaluation Committee and ultimately, same was accepted and letter of acceptance was issued on 30-4-2016 which was communicated to the petitioner. The Superintending Engineer (employer) also directed the petitioner to furnish additional performance security in the form detailed in para 34.1 of the Instructions to Bidders (ITB) for an amount equivalent to Rs.3,42,78,178/- within 21 days of the receipt of the letter of acceptance and sign the contract in accordance with para 34.3 of the ITB.

4. The Evaluation Committee constituted by the Central Government found the bid of the petitioner seriously unbalanced in relation to the Engineer' s estimate of the cost of work to be performed under the contract, therefore, the petitioner was asked to submit additional performance security as stated above by order dated 30-4-2016. The petitioner submitted its detailed price analysis to demonstrate the internal inconsistency of those prices with the consideration methods and the schedule proposed.

5. The Tender Evaluation Committee in its recommendation dated 13-5-2016 found that the market rate of Bitumin has been reduced. Therefore, the Tender Evaluation Committee recommended for reducing the amount of additional performance guarantee to 7.32% of the estimated cost in place of 15.32% earlier accepted and it was placed before the Principal Secretary of the Government which was not accepted by the Government and the order dated 27-5-2016 was passed granting only ten days time to submit the additional performance security holding that there shall be no change to the amount of additional p