COMMON ORDER

1.Since the petitioners in all these writ petitions have challenged the very same tender, these writ petitions are disposed of by this Court through a common order. The respective petitioners in these writ petitions have challenged the impugned tender on the following grounds:-

(a) The tender conditions have been tailor-made selectively for certain bidders alone and are not in public interest.

(b) The GST returns submitted by the successful bidders in the impugned tender do not match with the turnover statements submitted by the successful bidders along with their bids, which violate the terms and conditions of the tender.

(c) The tender conditions are in violation of Rule 20(1)(b) of the Tamil Nadu Transparency in Tenders (Public Private Partnership Procurement) Rules, 2012 (in short “Rules”), which stipulates that for a contract exceeding Rs.10 crores, a 30-day period is mandatory for the submission of bids. However, in the impugned tender, the Tamil Nadu Water Supply and Drainage Board (in short “TWAD Board”) has given only a 15-day period for the submission of bids. Eventhough Rule 20(2) of the Tender Rules enables the tender inviting authority to reduce the time limit