ORDER

The petitioner is a registered partnership firm engaged in Government contract work from 1997. The subject-matter of this writ petition is an on-line tender notice relating to road widening issued by Uthangarai (H) C&M Sub-Division of the State Highways department for widening, from two land Paved Shoulders to Four Lane and Strengthening at KM 0/0 – 1/550 of connecting road between SIPCOT and Pochampalli – Kondamandapatti.

2. The tender notice was issued on 26.02.2024 and the documents were available for prospective bidders from 01.03.2024 on the Government website. The last date for submission of bids was 19.03.2024. The special conditions of contract made it mandatory for the bidder to enclose a Working Condition Certificate for plant and equipment (in short ‘WCC’) from the competent authority in the prescribed format. The certificate should have been obtained after the date of tender so as to ensure that the condition of plant and equipment was optimum. The special conditions made it more than amply clear that a bid unaccompanied by the WCC would be found ineligible.

3. The petitioner had submitted the application for WCC on 15.03.2024 to R1 both via email as well as through