UDIN requirement in tender evaluation justified rejection of bids backed by unverifiable tax audit reports.

Tender evaluation may reject bids supported by financial records that are not duly authenticated and verifiable, where the tender requires audited balance-sheets, profit and loss accounts, and a Chartered Accountant's certificate to establish average turnover. The Technical Evaluation Committee was entitled to rely only on documents capable of verification from its own office and was not bound to make independent enquiries from external departments. Because the relevant tax audit reports did not bear UDIN, as required by the professional notification issued on 02.08.2019, the committee could treat them as unreliable for evaluation. The challenge to the rejection of the technical bids therefore failed.

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Issues: Whether the rejection of the technical bids was justified on the ground that the tax audit reports and balance-sheets submitted with the bids did not bear the Unique Document Identification Number (UDIN), and whether such documents could be relied upon to satisfy the tender requirement.

Analysis: The tender required submission of audited balance-sheets, profit and loss account statements and a Chartered Accountant's certificate to establish the prescribed average turnover. The Technical Evaluation Committee was held entitled to insist on duly authenticated documents capable of being verified from its own office and was not expected to make independent enquiries from external departments. The notification issued on 02.08.2019 made UDIN mandatory for tax audit reports, and the tax audit reports produced by the petitioner admittedly did not bear UDIN. In that situation, the Committee was justified in treating the reports as not reliable for evaluation purposes.

Conclusion: The rejection of the technical bids was held to be justified, and the challenge to the rejection failed.

Ratio Decidendi: Where tender documents require authenticated financial records and the governing professional notification makes UDIN mandatory for tax audit reports, bids supported by tax audit reports lacking UDIN may be rejected as unverifiable and unreliable for tender evaluation.

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