TaxTMI 
TaxTMI 
2013 (11) TMI 1700
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....n (C) No.4668 of 2011 filed by the appellants dismissed. 3. In terms of a notice dated 12th July, 2011 Divisional Commercial Manager, Tinsukia invited tenders for the grant of a three year lease of 23 tonnes of space in VPH (Parcel Van) on train No.15960/15959 Kamrup Express. Among those who responded to the tender notice was the appellant herein who offered a sum of Rs. 1,46,872/- per trip for the proposed lease. The tender process was discharged by the railway administration on account of technical and administrative reasons no matter the appellant's offer was the highest. A communication dated 6th September, 2011, addressed to the appellant was in that regard issued to the appellant who assailed the same in W.P. (C) No.4668 of 2011 befo....
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....nication sent to the appellant instead of being disclosed subsequently in the affidavit filed in opposition to the writ petition. The learned Single Judge accordingly allowed the writ petition with a direction that so long as the appellant undertook to accept the penalty clause as a part of the contract between the parties the railway administration would consider its bid for acceptance and resultant allotment of the contract within 15 days of receipt of the undertaking. 6. Aggrieved by the judgment and order abovementioned, the railway administration preferred Writ Appeal (C) No.79 of 2012 before the Division Bench of the High Court of Gauhati. Relying upon the decision of this Court in Raunaq International Ltd. v. I.V.R. Construction Ltd....
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....d with the approval of the Controlling Officer nor was any verification of tender documents conducted by the Division concerned for their genuineness. The absence of a penalty clause from the tender documents was similarly a serious deficiency in the entire tender process. Cancellation of the tender process could not, in that view, be said to be mala fide to call for interference by the High Court. The respondents have, in their written submissions filed before us, referred to Circular No.12 of 2006 by which guidelines for leasing out existing space in trains for the purposes of operating parcel services have been issued. These guidelines, inter alia, stipulate that a tender Committee shall be put together which requirement was also not com....
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....t the instance of an aggrieved party, submission of a tender in response to a notice inviting such tenders is no more than making an offer which the State or its agencies are under no obligation to accept. The bidders participating in the tender process cannot, therefore, insist that their tenders should be accepted simply because a given tender is the highest or lowest depending upon whether the contract is for sale of public property or for execution of works on behalf of the Government. All that participating bidders are entitled to is a fair, equal and non-discriminatory treatment in the matter of evaluation of their tenders. It is also fairly well-settled that award of a contract is essentially a commercial transaction which must be de....
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....ehensive review and principles of law applicable to the process for judicial review identified in the following words: "19. From the above decisions, the following principles emerge: (a) the basic requirement of Article 14 is fairness in action by the State, and non-arbitrariness in essence and substance is the heartbeat of fair play. These actions are amenable to the judicial review only to the extent that the State must act validly for a discernible reason and not whimsically for any ulterior purpose. If the State acts within the bounds of reasonableness, it would be legitimate to take into consideration the national priorities; (b) fixation of a value of the tender is entirely within the purview of the executive and courts hardly h....