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IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUDICATURE AT BOMBAY

CIVIL APPELLATE JURISDICTION

APPEAL FROM ORDER NO. 361 of 2022

WITH

INTERIM APPLICATION NO. 2527 OF 2022

IN

APPEAL FROM ORDER NO. 361 OF 2022

Mystical Techplast Pvt. Ltd, thru Deepak

Shamu Kharat

.. Appellant

Versus

The Maharashtra State Road Development

Corporation Ltd thru its Managing Director,

.. Respondent

…

Mr. Surel S. Shah with Saurabh Butala for the appellant.

Dr.Milind Sathe, Sr. Advocate with Mr.Arun Siwach, Ms.Priyanka

Mitra with Mr.Karan Gandhi i/b Cyril Amarchand Mangaldas

for the respondent.

CORAM: BHARATI DANGRE, J.

DATED : 25^th APRIL, 2022

JUDGMENT:-

1

The question that arises in the present Appeal is

whether a condition stipulated in the letter of acceptance to the

effect that a lease agreement will be executed only after the

Government approval of Model Lease Agreement, with

conditions regarding subleasing etc. and stipulation of signing of

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the lease agreement on compliance of the said condition, would

amount to a ‘Concluded Contract’. Another ancillary point

which need an appreciation in the Appeal, is whether absence of

condition in the tender document to the effect that the lease

agreement shall be subject to sanction of the State Government,

would cease to have it’s contingent effect.

2

Heard Advocate Surel S Shah for the applicant and Sr.

counsel Dr. Milind Sathe for the respondent.

With the assistance of the respective counsel, I have

perused the Memo of Appeal as well as the documents appended

thereto, including the document of RFP (Request For Proposal)

as well as the copy of the plaint, written statement and the

impugned order.

3

The Maharashtra State Road Development

Corporation (MSRDC), an undertaking of the Government,

issued a Request for Proposal to bidders, inviting submission of

‘proposal’ for the lease of tender plots at Sanjgaon under

Khalapur, Tahsil, District Raigiad, Yashwantrao Chavan Express

Way (YCEW) in the background that Mumbai-Pune corridor, a

part of National Highway NH-4 was identified to be one of the

congested National Highway corridor, and in order to decongest,

it was developed as a part of “National Expressway System” which

facilitated safeguard and faster employment of traffic and savings

in fuel.

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While developing the express way, MSRDC had

acquired pockets of land along with the expressway for the

carriage way and for support facilities like stone quarries, water

resources, project offices, storage of materials and equipments etc.

The MSRDC, therefore, proposed to develop the tender plots at

Sanjgaon under Khalapur Tahsil of Raigad District in

Environmentally Sensitive manner for commercialization

proceeds to be utilized by MSRDC for maintenance of the

YCEW – a public project.

4

The MSRDC proposed to offer it’s tender plots of

land for development through competitive bidding process. The

tender notices published, set out the scope of the tender and

provide instructions to the bidders to ensure a non-discriminatory

and transparent bidding process to be conducted in an objective

manner.

The tender document contemplated lease of the

tendered plots at Sanjgaon for long lease of 80 years and the bid

process contemplated the activities taken up MSRDC, leading

upto the selection of successful bidder.

The ‘tender document’ defined certain terms and a

few of them which are relevant, need a reproduction :-

“Contract” shall mean and include terms and conditions

of RFP, Letter of Acceptance, the Offer/Bid, the

Agreement and mutually accepted conditions in

authorized correspondence exchanged with the bidder

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