Bombay High Court
Alok Gas Agencies Thr. Its Proprietor, ... vs Ministry Of Steel, Government Of India, ... on 24 June, 2024
Author: Nitin W. Sambre
Bench: Nitin W. Sambre
1 WP-3726-2024.odt
IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUDICATURE AT BOMBAY
NAGPUR BENCH, NAGPUR
Writ Petition No.3726 of 2024
[Alok Gas Agencies, through its Proprietor Mr. Alok Gandhi Pashine VERSUS Ministry of Steel,
Government of India, New Delhi and others]
Office Notes, Office Memoranda of Coram,
appearances, Court's orders of directions Court's or Judge's order
and Registrar's orders.
Shri Simil Purohit with Ms Khushbu Chhajed, holding for Shri A.J. Bhoot, Counsel for
Petitioner.
Shri N.S. Deshpande, Deputy Solicitor General of India for Respondent No.1.
Shri Rohit Joshi, Counsel for Respondent No.3.
CORAM : NITIN W. SAMBRE AND ABHAY J. MANTRI, JJ.
DATE : 24th JUNE, 2024 1. Heard.
2. The respondent No.2, a Company incorporated under the provisions of the Companies Act, 1956 and conducting its business under the aegis of the respondent No.1- Union of India, has floated a tender for supply of compressed oxygen gas for industrial use. The Tender Document contains an embargo thereby adopting 'One Bid per Bidder' policy. Clause 29 of the said Tender Document, being relevant, reads as follows :
"29. One Bid per Bidder A Bidder shall submit only one bid in a particular bidding process (unless otherwise allowed in the bid STC / ATC conditions). In case of a holding company having more than one independent manufacturing units or more than one unit having common business ownership / management, only one unit should quote. Similar restrictions shall apply to closely related sister companies. Bidder's sister/ Associated/ Allied concern(s) participating or applying against the same tender, shall lead to
2 WP-3726-2024.odt disqualification of Bidders. Sister / Associated / Allied concern means a company, society, partnership firm or proprietorship firm having one or more common persons as Director / Partner / Member / Owner. A Bidder who submits more than one bid will cause all the proposals submitted in the particular bid to be disqualified. In relation to the above, a person will include firm(s) of Proprietorship / Partnership Firm / Limited Liability Partnership / Private Limited / Limited company / Society registered under Society's Act / Statutory Bodies / any other legal entity, as the case may be, & will be deemed to have submitted multiple bids in a particular bid if a person bids in any of the two formats given below:
i. individual or proprietorship format and/or ii. a partnership or association of persons format and/or iii. A company format Whereby, . A company shall for this purpose include any artificial person whether constituted under the Indian laws or of any other country.
. A person shall be deemed to have bid in a partnership format or in association of persons format if he is a partner of the firm which has submitted the bid or is a member of any association of persons which has submitted a bid.
. A person shall be deemed to have bid in a company format if the person holds:
i. More than 10% (ten percent) of the voting share capital of the company which has submitted a bid, or
3 WP-3726-2024.odt ii. Is a director and / or Key Managerial Personnel of the company which has submitted a bid, or iii. Holds more than 10% (ten percent) of voting share capital in and/or is a director and / or Key Managerial Personnel of a holding company of that company which has submitted the bid.
By making a bid pursuant to the Tender Documents, the bidder / tenderer shall be deemed to have declared that the bidder / tenderer has not made any other bid or multiple bids as understood or deemed in terms of this clause.
All the bids of a bidder who has submitted multiple bids, as per the clause, shall be rejected and Bid Security for all such bids shall be forfeited, not by way of penalty or liquidated damages but by way of reimbursement of the pre-estimated costs likely to be incurred by the buyer towards bidding process and in the scrutiny & evaluation of bids.
In addition to the above, bidders found to be in contravention to the said clause will be liable for administrative actions."
3. According to the learned counsel for the petitioner, the Directors of the respondent Nos.3 and 4 are one and the same persons, as could be inferred from the information reflected on the website of the respondent Nos.3 and 4, which are produced at Annexures- D and E to this petition. It is the further contention of the learned counsel for the petitioner that the Tender Document mandates that the tenderers should have their own godown within the areas where the supplies are to be made available and the website of the respondent Nos.3 and 4 4 WP-3726-2024.odt does not reflect existence of their any godown. As such, he would claim that the respondent Nos.3 and 4 incur disqualification.
4. That being so, issue notice before admission to the respondents, returnable on 8-7-2024.
5. Shri N.S. Deshpande, learned Deputy Solicitor General of India, waives service of notice for the respondent No.1; and Shri Rohit Joshi, learned counsel, waives service of notice for the respondent No.3.
6. Hamdast is granted for other respondents.
(ABHAY J. MANTRI, J.) (NITIN W. SAMBRE, J.)
LANJEWAR
Signed by: Prashant D. Lanjewar
Designation: Senior Pvt. Secretary
Date: 24/06/2024 18:30:24