JUDGMENT :

S.C. Agrawal, J.

1. This petition for special leave to appeal against the judgment of the Delhi High Court dated March 6, 1997, arises out of the award of a contract for construction of roads on the national highway in West Bengal by the National Highways Authority of India, respondent No. 1 herein.

2. The Asian Development Bank (ADB) had sanctioned a loan of US dollars 245 million for the purpose of execution of certain National High way Development Projects under the loan agreement dated March 22, 1995 ; the Ministry of Surface Transport of the Government of India was appointed as Project Executing Agency and the Ministry of Surface Transport had entrusted the task of execution of the projects to respondent No. 1. In September, 1995, respondent No. 1 invited bids for construction of roads on the National Highways in West Bengal for two alternative types of pavements (i) rigid (concrete), and (ii) flexible (bituminous). The petitioner as well as respondent No. 4 were among the bidders who had submitted their bids in response to the said invitation. The bid of the petitioner was the lowest among the bids for the rigid pavement while the bid of respondent No. 4 was the lowe