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Issues: (i) whether the tendering authority's interpretation of its own tender conditions, requiring a labour licence, could be displaced by judicial review; (ii) whether a registration certificate under the Orissa Shops and Commercial Establishments Act, 1956 satisfied the tender condition requiring a valid labour licence; (iii) whether the respondent had the requisite three years' experience and whether mala fides were made out in the award process.
Issue (i): whether the tendering authority's interpretation of its own tender conditions, requiring a labour licence, could be displaced by judicial review.
Analysis: In tender matters, the author of the tender document is ordinarily best placed to understand and interpret its requirements. Judicial review is confined to examining the decision-making process and does not permit the court to substitute its own interpretation unless the authority's view is arbitrary, perverse, mala fide, or irrational. The tender document, read as a whole, made clear that the licence requirement related to labour engagement in the contract labour sense.
Conclusion: The High Court was not justified in second-guessing the tendering authority's interpretation.
Issue (ii): whether a registration certificate under the Orissa Shops and Commercial Establishments Act, 1956 satisfied the tender condition requiring a valid labour licence.
Analysis: Section 4 of the Orissa Act concerns registration and categorisation of establishments such as shops, commercial establishments, hotels and similar premises. It does not operate as a labour licence for the purposes of the tender. The tender conditions, especially those relating to staffing and alternate arrangements during strikes, showed that the contemplated licence was one connected with contract labour. Section 1(4) of the Contract Labour (Regulation and Abolition) Act, 1970 was also relied upon, but that provision did not alter the tender authority's construction of its own requirements.
Conclusion: The Orissa registration certificate did not satisfy the labour-licence requirement under the tender.
Issue (iii): whether the respondent had the requisite three years' experience and whether mala fides were made out in the award process.
Analysis: The materials on record did not establish the alleged gap in the experience period so as to negate the tender condition on experience. As to mala fides, a mere incantation of the term is insufficient; the pleaded and proved facts did not disclose a substantiated case of bias or collusion. The authority's decision to award the contract to the appellant was supported by the tender evaluation and the appellant's status as the lowest bidder.
Conclusion: The challenge on experience and mala fides failed.
Final Conclusion: The impugned judgment was set aside and the tender award in favour of the appellant stood restored, with the appellant permitted to continue performance under the agreement.
Ratio Decidendi: In judicial review of tenders, the court must defer to a plausible interpretation of the tender conditions by the authoring authority and interfere only where the decision is arbitrary, perverse, mala fide, or irrational; a different statutory registration certificate cannot be substituted for a specific licence required by the tender.
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