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The petitioner is before this Court calling in question an Endorsement dated 20-02-2023 and to declare the action of the respondent in cancelling the tender notification dated 16-05-2022 qua purchase of Paracetamol 500 mg Tablets as illegal and seeks a consequent direction by issuance of writ in the nature of mandamus to accept the tender of the petitioner.

2. Heard Sri Jayakumar S.Patil, learned senior counsel appearing for the petitioner and Smt. Sumana Baliga M., learned counsel appearing for the respondent.

3. The facts adumbrated are as follows:-

The petitioner claims to be a small scale industry meeting all the requirements of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises ('MSME' for short) in terms of law. It is the case of the petitioner that under the industrial policy for 2020-2025 as notified by the State on 13-08-2020, the policy envisaged 15% of price preference to micro and small enterprises. The respondent issues a notice inviting tender on 16-05-2022 and the petitioner finding itself eligible to be considered under the category of Small Scale Industry/Enterprise submits its bid insofar as it concerns Paracetamol 500 mg Tablets.

6. During the pendency of the contempt proceedings, an endorsement is issued communicating to the petitioner about cancellation of the tender in which it had participated on 16-05-2022. On 21-02-2023, since all the aforesaid tenders were cancelled, a fresh tender was notified for procurement of drugs including Paracetamol Tablets. The petitioner participates in the said tender but is declared unsuccessful and the lowest bidder is one Vivek Pharmachem Limited. This tender also could not be taken forward by the respondent as the price quoted was higher than the market value. This leads to calling of fresh tender on 04-05-2023 again for procurement of various drugs including Paracetamol. The petitioner participates in this tender and the petitioner's tender was again rejected and M/s Hindustan Laboratories was found to be the lowest bidder at a price of 41.93 per unit. The petitioner files the subject writ petition on 13-03-2023. An interim order was sought and granted that the respondent shall not precipitate the matter, which is in operation till the date the matter was reserved for orders.

11. After the aforesaid events that took place comes a new tender on 21-02-2023 as the endorsement was issued on 20-02-2023, for procurement of various drugs including Paracetamol Tablets as was done earlier. The said document is placed along with the statement of objections. The petitioner participates in the said tender unsuccessfully and the Tender Accepting Authority recognized another tenderer M/s Vivek Pharmachem to be the lowest bidder at `45.15 per unit for Paracetamol Tablets. Though the petitioner did not emerge successful in the said tender, the tender itself comes to be cancelled as M/s Vivek Pharmachem had quoted a price which was higher than the market price. The third tender then comes to be issued on 04-05-2023 in which the petitioner participates. The petitioner's bid is rejected in the tender on the ground that he had quoted a higher price than the lowest bidder M/s Hindustan Laboratories at `41.93 per unit. But, the subject writ petition has been preferred on 13-03-2023 and on 28-03-2023 an application is preferred seeking a restraint against the Tender Inviting Authority to issue work order in favour of the successful bidder for Paracetamol Tablets. Interim order was granted and was in subsistence till the matter was reserved.