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15. One of the tests to determine whether the condition is one that is essential and to be followed rigidly or is just ancillary can be whether the shortcoming or the condition which is lacking can be cured without bringing any substantial change in bid documents by supplying the actual or correct information which was found to be lacking.

16. In State of Kerala v. Zoom Developers Private Ltd. and others (2009) 4 SCC 563, where the bid of a party was treated as non responsive because there was a change in the consortium membership and failure to incorporate joint and several liability clause for the consortium clause in the consortium agreement. According to the respondents the party had used 6 of 9 words "Joint and several responsibility" instead of the words "joint and several liability". The Supreme Court observed that though the word "responsibility" is different from the word "liability" and the term "joint and several liability" was required to be incorporated in the consortium agreement, there was no merit in the contention that only the word "liability" ought to have been used since it constituted an objective criterion. The Court observed that it was a curable defect.