CW15997/2012

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IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUDICATURE FOR RAJASTHAN

BENCH AT JAIPUR

ORDER

IN

S.B. Civil Writ Petition No.15997/2012

With

Stay Application No.13531/2012

and

Second Stay Application No.314/2013

M/s R.N. Metals through its

Proprietor Shri R.N. Sharma and

Another Vs. The Rajasthan Vidhyut

Utpadan Nigam Limited and Others

Date of Order ::: 28.01.2013

Present

Hon'ble Mr. Justice Mohammad Rafiq

Shri S.S. Hora, counsel for petitioner

Shri R.K. Agrawal, senior counsel with

Ms. Sunita Pareek and

Shri Nitin Jain, counsel for respondents

####

//Reportable//

By the Court:-

This writ petition seeks to challenge the

award of the work for supply of Hi-Chrome Grinding

Media Balls to respondent no.3 pursuant to Notice

Inviting Tender No.TN-104/2012. AIA Engineering

Limited by respondent no.1 – the Rajasthan Vidhyut

Utpadan Nigam Limited.

Petitioner as well as respondent no.3 both

are manufacturer of Hi-chrome GM balls. According

to petitioner, it is supplying said item to

respondent no.1 Rajasthan Vidhyut Utpadan Nigam

Limited (for short, 'the RVUNL') for last five

years satisfactorily because in each of those

years, it was the lowest tenderer having quoted

CW15997/2012

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lowest rates in his tender. In respect of the year

2011-12 it was awarded work of supply of 2705 MT of

Hi-chrome GM balls but till date it has supplied

2944 MT of Hi-chrome GM balls in terms of clause of

contract, which provides that the respondent RVUNL

can call upon the supplier to supply upto 20% more

material according to its requirement.

Petitioner contends that respondent-RVUNL

vide NIT No.TN-104/2012 invited tenders for supply

of 2000 MT Hi-chrome GM balls in different sizes.

The petitioner applied for supply of tender

document and vide letter dated 09.04.2012 tendered

documents were issued to the petitioner. The tender

was in two parts. Technical bid formed Part 'A' and

price bid formed Part 'B'. Tenders were to be

opened on 02.05.2012. Petitioner submitted bid on

25.04.2012 for supply of full quantity of 2000 MT

Hi-chrome GM balls. Petitioner qualified the

technical bid and was informed vide letter dated

28.05.2012 that price bid Part 'B' shall be opened

at 11.00 am on 30.05.2012. When the price bid was

opened on that date, petitioner appeared as the

lowest bider (L1) having quoted Rs.57000/- per MT,

while respondent no.3 emerged as second lowest

bidder (L2) having quoted Rs.62000/- per MT. One

Balaji appeared as lowest third bidder having

quoted Rs.67,000/- per MT. Even though the bid was

opened on 30.05.2012 respondents surprisingly did

not issue letter of intent or purchase order to the

petitioner. Petitioner was called to extend the

CW15997/2012

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validity upto 30.09.2012, which the petitioner duly

did vide letter dated 16.07.2012.

Shri S.S. Hora, learned counsel for

petitioner, argued that the respondents during the

period from June, 2012 to September, 2012 tried

their best, for some reason or the other, to

scuttle the entire bidding process with the obvious

intention to grant undue favour to respondent no.3,

who was the second lowest bidder. The petitioner on

27.09.2012 wrote a letter to the respondent that

since it quoted the lowest price, the contract

should be awarded to him and it should be given

purchase order for supply of entire demanded

quantity. It is also contended that the petitioner

alone was capable of supplying the required

quantity. Copy of tender submitted by the

petitioner at Annexure-4 in its clause 5.5

indicated that the petitioner produced letter of

its capacity of 2000 MT, which is otherwise evident

from the fact that previously it had supplied 2900

MT of Hi-chrome GM balls. Learned counsel referred

to letter Annexure-7 addressed to the Deputy Chief

Engineer (TD), RVUNL and submitted that the

petitioner was surprised to see the letter of

intent of supply