Judgment

MOHAN. J

(1) LEAVE granted,

(2) ALL these appeals can be dealt with under a common judgment since one and same issue requires to be decided. The brief facts are as under.

(3) THE Department of Telecommunications, government of India, invited tenders from Indian Companies with a view to license the operation of "Cellular Mobile Telephone Service" in four metropolitan cities of India, namely, Delhi, Bombay, Calcutta and Madras. Cellular mobile telephone means a telecommunication system which allows two-ways telecommunication between a mobile or stationary telephone to another mobile or stationary unit at a location. It may be within or outside the city including subscriber-cum-diailing and international SUBSCRIBER-cum-dialling calls. The last date for submission of tender was 31/3/1992. The tender process was in two stages. First stage involved technical evaluation and the second involved financial evaluation. Those who were short-listed at the first stage were invited for the second stage.

(4) THIRTY bidders participated initially at the first stage. The first Tender Evaluation Committee was constituted consisting of senior officers of the Department of Telecommunications.

(5) A Telecom Commission was constituted on 6/4/1989 comprising a Chairman and four full-time Members : 1. Member (Production) 2. Member (Services) 3. Member (Technology) 4. Member (Finance) It short-listed 16 companies, 12 of which were eligible without any defect. However, in the case of 4 the Committee recommended condonation of certain defects. Those four were : 1. BPL Systems and Projects Limited 2. Mobile Telecommunication Limited 3. Mobile Telecom Services 4. Indian Telecom Limited Between 19-5-1992 and 27/5/1992 the recommendations were submitted to the Telecom Commission. The matter came up for discussion among the members of the Commission. On 27/5/1992 the Telecom Commission accepted the recommendations of the Technical Evaluation Committee. The Chairman recommended that the short-list of bidders, the recommendations of the Tender Evaluation Committee and the proposal for financial bids be placed before the Selection Committee at the earliest.

(6) IT requires to be noted, at this stage, that a Selection Committee also described as Apex/High-Powered Committee comprising the Principal secretary to the Prime Minister and three other Secretaries to the government of India had been set up by the Minister for final evaluation of the bid.

(7) MR B.R. Nair, a Member (Budget) of Telecom Commission came to be appointed as Member (Services) on 29/5/1992. It appears the Selection Committee met a number of times and discussed the matter with the Minister. He submitted an interim report on 16/7/1992. During this time the Committee not only de novo exercised but also modified the short-list prepared by the Technical Evaluation Committee and approved 14 companies. The Selection Committee also met the representatives of equipment manufacturers for the selection of the licensees. On 20/7/1992, the revised financial bid and the short-list approved by the Telecom Commission were put up before the Minister for approval. On 24/7/1992, further meetings of the Selection Committee were held and the financial bid document was revised. On 28/7/1992, the Selection Committee submitted its final report. Two bidders, namely, M/s Ashok Leyland Ltd. and M/s Vam Organics Ltd. were dropped from the short-list of 16 bidders. On 29/7/1992, Mr Nair was appointed as Director General of Telecommunications. He was authorised to exercise all powers of Telecom Authority under Section 3 of the Telegraph Act. The Minister approved the issue of financial bids with modification to the short-listed companies as recommended by the Selection Committee on 29/7/1992. The approval took place on 30/7/1992.

(8) ON 30/7/1992, the financial tenders were issued. It contained seven criteria which had been approved by the Selecti