IN THE HIGH COURT OF MADHYA PRADESH AT JABALPUR BEFORE HON'BLE SHRI JUSTICE SANJEEV SACHDEVA, CHIEF JUSTICE &

HON'BLE SHRI JUSTICE VINAY SARAF

th

ON THE 12 OF NOVEMBER, 2025 WRIT PETITION No. 44130 of 2025 M/S KRCLSAY JV AND OTHERS Versus UNION OF INDIA AND OTHERS Appearance:

Shri Satish Agrawal - Advocate with Shri Abhikaran Agrawal, Shri Asif Lampuwala, Shri Chirag Sancheti, Shri Arpan Agrawal - Advocate for the petitioners.

Shri S.M. Guru - Deputy Solicitor General along with Deepanshu Rai - Advocate for the respondents/Union of India.

Shri Vikash Mishra - Advocate for the respondent No.3.

ORDER Per: Hon'ble Shri Justice Sanjeev Sachdeva, Chief Justice

1. Petitioners impugn communication dated 06.11.2025, whereby the bid submitted by petitioner consortium has been rejected citing clause 2.2.2.7(ii) of the bid documents i.e. Request For Proposal (RFP).

2. A tender was invited by the Ministry of Railways on 20.5.2025 for construction of a Section of the Railway Line in Sidhi – Singrauli New Rail Link Project. Last date for submission of bid was 18.07.2025. Petitioner consortium submitted its bid, however, by impugned communication dated 06.11.2025, which was uploaded on E-procurement portal, the bid of the petitioners was rejected on the ground that the same was non-responsive to the clause 2.2.2.7(ii) of the RFP.

3. Learned counsel for the petitioners submits that the bid of petitioner was rejected taking a hyper-technical view. He, however, concedes that there was some non-compliance on behalf of petitioners while submitting its bid.

4. Reference may be had to clause 2.2.2.7 of RFP, which reads as under:-

"2.2.2.7:- Submission in support of Financial Capacity:

(i) The Technical Bid shall be accompanied by the audited annual reports which includes Balance sheets and P&L Accounts of the Bidder (of each member in case of a Consortium/Joint Venture and also of associates if any, whose financial capacity is being claimed) for the last 5 (five) Completed Financial Years, preceding the year in which the Bid is submitted. Any certificate issued by Statutory Auditor/CA must include UDIN.

(ii) In case the annual accounts for the latest financial year are not audited and therefore the Bidder cannot make it available, the Bidder shall give an undertaking to this effect and the statutory auditor shall certify the same. In such a case, the Bidder shall provide the Audited Annual Reports for 5 (five) years preceding the year for which the Audited Annual Report is not being provided.

(iii) The Bidder must establish the minimum Net Worth specified in Clause 2.2.2.2, and provide details as per format at Annex-III of Appendix-

IA."

5. In the case of petitioners, respondents had cited sub clause (ii) of clause 2.2.2.7 of RFP, which requires that in case the annual accounts of the last financial year have not been audited and as such could not be made available, the bidder is required to submit undertaking to the said effect along with a certificate issued by the Statutory Auditor to certify the same and then only the bidder was permitted to furnish the annual audited accounts for five years preceding such year.

6. Reference may also be had to clause 2.1.13, which reads as under:-

"2.1.13:- Notwithstanding anything to the contrary contained herein, in the event that the Bid. Due Date falls within three months of the closing of the latest Financial completed Year of a Bidder, it shall ignore such Financial Year for the purposes of its Bid and furnish all its information and certification with reference to the 5 (five) years or 1 (one) year, as the case may be, preceding its latest Financial Year. For the avoidance of doubt, Financial Year shall, for the purposes of a Bid hereunder, mean the Accounting Year followed by the Bidder in the course of its normal business. Any certificate issued by Statutory Auditor/CA must include Unique Document Identification Number (UDIN)."

7. Clause 2.1.13 stipulates that in case the bid due date falls within three months of the cl