Tender policy can change with circumstances; deletion of HSRP experience and turnover conditions was upheld as valid.

Tender conditions for High Security Registration Plates are not immutable; a State may revise them when material circumstances change, including failed tender progress, increased competition, and a larger pool of approved manufacturers. The earlier Supreme Court decision upheld the conditions on the facts then existing, but it did not require identical terms in every future tender. Because the policy change aimed to broaden competition while preserving technical standards and public safety, and no arbitrariness, mala fides, discrimination, or statutory breach was shown, the deletion of the foreign-experience and turnover requirements was valid and not open to interference.

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Issues: Whether the State Governments could, in the changed circumstances, delete from the tender conditions for High Security Registration Plates the requirements of foreign experience and minimum turnover from that business, despite the earlier decision upholding those conditions.

Analysis: The earlier decision upheld the impugned tender conditions as valid in the then prevailing factual setting, but it did not freeze those conditions for all time or lay down an absolute rule that every future HSRP tender must contain the same terms. Tender conditions and policy choices in government contracts are ordinarily within the State's discretion, subject to judicial review only if they are arbitrary, discriminatory, mala fide, irrational, or contrary to statute. The record showed a material change in circumstances, including lapse of time, failed tender progress, increased competition, and the emergence of a larger pool of approved manufacturers. In that setting, the States were entitled to alter the tender policy to broaden competition while still maintaining the required technical standards and public safety objectives. No substantiated mala fides or legal infirmity was shown.

Conclusion: The deletion of the foreign-experience and turnover conditions was valid and not open to interference.

Ratio Decidendi: A State may modify tender conditions in the public interest when material circumstances change, and such a policy change will be upheld unless it is arbitrary, discriminatory, mala fide, or otherwise unreasonable in the Wednesbury sense.

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