Tender conditions found ambiguous, favoring existing contractors, hindering local cooperatives, violating statutory requirements under Solid Waste Management Rules, necessitating clear guidelines for fair competition.

1. These two petitions filed under Art.226 and Art.227 of the Constitution of India are challenging the 'E' Tender notice issued by the Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation ('the respondent Corporation' for short) dated 31.12.2016 for 'Door to door / gate refuse garbage collection and transportation upto Refuse Transfer Station / Dumping Site / Treatment Plant using own close body vehicles with tipping arrangement including labours in accordance with Solid Waste Management Rules, 2016 for the period of five years' for Ahmedabad city.

2. Though the challenge is to the same tender, the grounds on which the challenge is made by the petitioners are different. However, with consent of all, the petitions are taken up for hearing and disposal together.

3. The date and time for submission of online tender was 31.12.2016 to 30.01.2017 up to 18:00 hrs. and the date of submission of technical bid, tender fees, EMD and other documents in hard copy was from 02.02.2017 to 06.02.2017 up to 17:00 hrs. A corrigendum was issued wherein the dates for response to prebid queries was fixed on 28.01.2017 and the date and time of submission of online tender was 10.02.2017 up to 18:00 hrs., date of submission of technical bid, etc. in hard copy was 14.02.2017 up to 17:00 hrs. and date of opening of technical bid was 16.02.2017. The requisite details were also specified in the tender document, but are not needed to be referred to, except for the fact that area of Ahmedabad city was divided in six zones and each zone was divided in two groups and the bidder was required to place his bid in response to the tender notice issued in each group.

4. The petitioner of Special Civil Application No.1994 of 2017 claims to be a professional organization in the field of handling managing and handling municipal solid waste with enough expertize and experience of handling such work with different Municipal Corporations in various parts of India.

5. The petitioners of Special Civil Application No.1367 of 2017, which are three in number, are Central Trade Unions and Cooperative Societies respectively and are self help organization with strong membership of waster pickers and recyclers operating locally in Ahmedabad. Contentions of petitioner in SCA No.1994 of 2017

6. Mr. R.R.Marshall, learned Senior Advocate appearing for the petitioner contended that the tender floated and the terms specified therein are not specific and therefore, would not give a clear picture to the bidders as to for what the bidder is suppose to bid. Our attention is drawn to the description of the work which reds as, 'Door to door / gate refuse garbage collection and transportation upto refuse transfer station / dumping site / treatment plant using own close body vehicles with tipping arrangement including labours in accordance with Solid Waste Management Rules, 2016 for the period of five years' . According to the petitioner, though certain requirements for the bidders are specified like requirement of vehicles, nature of vehicles, financial capabilities, etc., however, there is no specification as to from which place the garbage collection is to take place and at which place such garbage has to be deposited. In absence of such clear demarcation, it is impossible for the bidder to assess that how much distance each vehicle of the bidder will have to travel and therefore, lack of clarify on this has not enabled the petitioner to accurately make assessment of fuel consumption to fill up their bid. It is submitted that the title of the contract is also misleading as to there does not appear to be any specific condition or mention as to what would be the responsibility of the contractor i.e. to say whether the contractor is to collect garbage from door to door / gate of the society or from a particular point and deposit it to a particular point. This clarity is essential as it will be a deciding factor for the bidder to engage manpower like waste pickers / garbage collectors for the purpose of door to doo