CAV JUDGMENT

(Per: HONOURABLE MR. JUSTICE ARUN KUMAR JHA)

Date : 20-04-2023 Heard learned counsel for the petitioner and learned counsel for the respondents.

2. The present writ petition has been filed claiming the following reliefs :-

i. For setting aside the decision of the Technical Bid Committee as contained in Memo No. 4073 dated 21.12.2022 which is completely without jurisdiction as same was held after opening of the financial bid wherein the petitioner was declared L1 but even then by the said order the Technical Bid Committee recommended for cancellation of tender and re-tender on the basis of single successful bidder which was not applicable at this stage.

ii. For setting aside the Re-tender bearing Short Inviting Tender RWD / MR 3054 / 03 / E- Tender / 2022-23 issued with the signature of Executive Engineer, Rural Works Department, West, Division Raxaul, as the re-tender has been issued only after the petitioner was declared L-1 in the Financial Bid.

iii. For issuance of direction to the respondent authorities to execute agreement with the petitioner with respect to Tender ID 2022 EC BIH 1185574- 1, for which financial bid was opened on 26.08.2022 and the petitioner was declared to be L1 and subsequently after checking the document and taking affidavit from the petitioner the Superintending Engineer vide letter no.. 906 dated 20.09.2022 recommended for finalization of tender.

iv. For any other relief/reliefs for which the petitioner may be deemed entitled to”.

3. The short facts, according to the petitioner, are that one NIT bearing Short Inviting Tender RWD/MR 3054/03/ E- Tender / 2022-23 was issued with the signature of Executive Engineer, Rural Works Department, West, Work Division, Raxaul with respect to 24 works. The matter in issue confined to the item no. 16 of the aforementioned NIT which is as follows:-

Sl. no.	District	Block	Name of Road	Length Total	Estimated cost (in Lakhs)	Cost of BOQ	Bid Security
16.	East Champaran	Aadapur	Lakhaura- Adapur R.E.O Road to Bheriyahi MNP	1.85	155.64	10,000	3.1128

From the NIT, it would transpire that the date of issue of Notice Inviting Tender was 23.05.2022, period of downloading of tender document was from 1.06.2022 to 08.06.2022, the date, time and place of bid meeting was 01.06.2022, the last date and time of uploading tender document was 08.06.2022 up till 03.00 P.M. and the date, time of opening of technical bid was 08.06.2022 up till 03.30 P.M. The petitioner being class-I contractor and having fulfilling all eligibility criteria as per the NIT and MBD submitted tender well within time. Four other contractors besides the petitioner submitted their tender for the aforementioned work. The meeting of the technical bid committee was held on 16.06.2022 and out of the five contractors, three including the petitioner were declared eligible. After the decision of the Technical Bid Committee, the financial bid was also opened on 26.08.2022 at 12:22 P.M. wherein the petitioner was found to have quoted the lowest rate, i.e., 15.79%, but in spite thereof, the agreement was not executed and, therefore, the petitioner submitted an application on 06.09.2022 before the concerned Executive Engineer for execution of the agreement. Thereafter, the petitioner was also asked to provide justification for quoting minimum rate which the petitioner provided and, therefore, the Executive Engineer vide his letter no. 1125 dated 16.09.2022 address to the Superintending Engineer apprised him that the petitioner has already submitted justification for quoting rate of -15.79% which was being forwarded for appropriate decision. Accordingly, the Superintending Engineer vide letter no. 906 dated 20.09.2022 address to the Chief Engineer-3, RWD, Bihar, Patna to send all the documents including justification of the petitioner with recommendation for taking final decision in the tender. Thereafter, the only formality remained was to enter into an agreement with the petitioner and issue work or

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