TaxTMI 
TaxTMI 
2013 (9) TMI 390
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....t Department/ Government Undertaking/ Statutory Body/ Municipality and of the like Government Bodies in DI Pipe-supply tender during last five years and if any such incident is found at any point of time, the tender will be cancelled summarily without assigning any reason whatsoever. (j) Valid PAN No., VAT No., Copy of acknowledgement of latest Income Tax Return and Professional Tax Return." 3. It must immediately be clarified that so far as clause (i) is concerned, the learned Single Judge had thought it unnecessary to analyse its applicability and relevance, having come to the conclusion that a violation of clause (j) had been committed by the Appellant-company inasmuch as it had failed to file its latest Income Tax Return along with its bid. This position has continued to obtain even before the Division Bench as will be palpably clear from a perusal of the impugned judgment. The Division Bench, despite noting clause (j), has concerned itself only with the legal implications flowing from the alleged non-compliance of clause (i). The Division Bench has predicated its decision on W.B. State Electricity Board v. Patel Engineering Co. Ltd. (2001) 2 SCC 451 and has extracted, as we ....
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....ided. Where power to relax or waive a rule or a condition exists under the rules, it has to be done strictly in compliance with the rules. We have, therefore, no hesitation in concluding that adherence to the ITB or rules is the best principle to be followed, which is also in the best public interest." 4. The impugned judgment states that clause (j) cannot be viewed as a non-essential term and, therefore, should have been corrected before the submission of the tender. This seems to us to be chronologically or sequentially impossible; what was obviously meant was that failure to adhere to this term would render the bid non-compliant and, therefore, beyond the pale of consideration in toto. The Division Bench also opined that the Appellant-company could not be granted the indulgence to correct this error, as 'such facility was not available to other bidders.' In saying so, the Division Bench, it appears to us, has diluted its view that clause (j) is altogether inviolable. 5. The Respondents have endeavoured to raise the alleged violation of clause (i) before us, but we are in no manner of doubt that this effort should be roundly rejected. This is despite the fact that an explanatio....
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....e law of precedence and of stare decisis is predicated on the wisdom and salubrity of providing a firmly founded law, without which uncertainty and ambiguity would cause consternation in society. It garners legal predictability, which simply stated, is an essential. Our research has revealed the existence of only one other three-Judge Bench decision which has dealt with this aspect of the law, namely, Siemens Public Communication Networks Private Limited v. Union of India (2008) 16 SCC 215, which is in actuality an anthology of all previous decisions including Tata Cellular. The sheer plethora of precedents makes it essential that this Court should abjure from discussing each and every decision which has dealt with a similar question of law. Failure to follow this discipline and regimen inexorably leads to prolixity in judgments which invariably is a consequence of lengthy arguments. 7. It is a capital exhaustion of Court time, lack of which has become critical. We shall, therefore, confine ourselves to Tata Cellular. We are mindful of the fact that it is a legitimate exercise, perfectly permissible for Benches to advance the law provided this exercise does not lead to a conclusio....
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....at the private parties could not bind the Government by implication. Although Sorath Builders makes no reference to Tata Cellular but nevertheless is not incongruous to it; otherwise it would have been rendered per incuriam. It merely reiterates that while reasonableness in the Wednesbury mould is an integral part of administrative law it has no relevance in contractual law; on facts this Court held that since documents had not been despatched in accordance with the specified time schedule, the bid which had already been received on-line could correctly not be considered. Glodyne Technoserve also applies Tata Cellular; but on the factual matrix sounds a discordant note so far as the Respondents who rely on it are concerned, inasmuch as it recognises that it fell within the discretionary domain of the concerned Authority whether or not to consider the documents (in that case an ISO Certification) which had not been submitted as per tender stipulations. Kanhaiya Lal, relied upon by Shri Vishwanathan, talks in the same timbre in that it distinguishes between essential and collateral terms of a tender and in the latter case allows elbow room for exercise of discretion. Although it may ....
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....rst point is concerned, it needs to be dealt with short shrift for the reason that the Courts below have not thought it relevant for discussion, having, in their wisdom, considered it sufficient to nonsuit the Appellant-company for its failure on the second count. It has, however, been explained by Mr. Vishwanathan, learned Senior Counsel for the Appellant-company that at the material time there was no blacklisting or delisting of the Appellant-company and that in those circumstances it was not relevant to make any disclosure in this regard. The very fact that the Tendering Authority, in terms of its communication dated 22nd July 2013 had not adverted to this ground at all, lends credence to the contention that a valid argument had been proffered had this ground been raised. Regardless of the weight, pithiness or sufficiency of the explanation given by the Appellantcompany in this regard, this issue in its entirety has become irrelevant for our cogitation for the reason that it does not feature as a reason for the impugned rejection. This ground should have been articulated at the very inception itself, and now it is not forensically fair or permissible for the Authority or any of ....