TaxTMI 
TaxTMI 
2024 (3) TMI 842
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....ily Welfare Department, appearing for all the respondents. 2. The petitioner is aggrieved with the rejection of his bid amount, on the ground that he had not submitted the IT return for the assessment year 2022-2023, in terms of the tender condition. 3. The petitioner's case in brief is that a tender notice was issued on 01.08.2023 by the Tezpur Medical College & Hospital, for supply of stationary items and 16.08.2023 was the last date for submission of bids. The tender was to be opened on the same date, i.e., 16.08.2023 at 2 P.M. 4. The document required to be submitted as per the Annexure 1 of the tender notice included at Serial Nos. 3 and 7 as follows:- "3. I.T. Clearance Certificate/I.T. Return of last assessment year....
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....ng 31.03.2022. As such, there was no opportunity for the petitioner to have submitted the IT return for the year 2022-2023, in terms of the tender notice dated 06.08.2023. Thus, the respondents could not insist upon early filing of an audited return, when Explanation 2 of Section 139 of the Act, 1961 provided the time for filing an Income Tax Return. He accordingly submits that the rejection of the petitioner's bid by the respondent authorities and any document issued by them in that regard should be set aside. Further, the petitioner's bid should be considered to have been submitted in terms of the conditions of the tender notice and his bid should be considered to be a valid bid. He submits that the State respondents cannot apply a hidden....
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....tisfies the tender condition, is primarily based upon the satisfaction of the authorities inviting the bids. As the respondents have taken a decision that the petitioner's bid did not conform to the tender conditions, the said decision cannot be questioned by way of judicial review. 9. I have heard the learned counsels for the parties. 10 The checklist, which is a part of the tender notice, requires that the IT return of the last assessment year should also be enclosed along with the tender document. At the outset, it may be stated here that there is no specific years mentioned in the Tender Notice, for which the IT Return Certificates for the last 3 years have to be provided. The IT return of the last assessment year which has to be ....
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....submit his return on income for the year 2022-2023 to the Income Tax authorities, which was to be audited in terms of Section 44 AB (a) of the Act, 1961. However, as the petitioner's Return on income for the year 2022-2023 had not been audited for the assessment year 2023-2024, the petitioner had submitted his income tax return for the assessment years 2020-2021, 2021-2022 and 2022-2023. 15. In the case of Dutta Associates Pvt. Ltd. (supra), the Supreme Court has held that "whatsoever procedure the Government proposes to follow in accepting the tender must be clearly stated in the tender notice. The consideration of the tenders received and the procedure to be followed in the matter of acceptance of a tender should be transparent, fair a....
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....rfered with, unless the decisions are found to be arbitrary and irrational. A mere disagreement with the decision-making process or the decision of the Administrative Authority is no reason for a Writ Court to interfere in a tender proceeding, as the author of a tender document is the best person to understand and appreciate it's requirement and interpret it's documents. 19. The problem that however arises in the present case is that the respondents have not stated clearly, the specific years of the Financial Statement that were required by the tenderers. In the present case, the petitioner whose gross receipts was over Rs. 1 crore, was required to have his Income Return audited, in terms of Section 44 AB(a) read with Explanation 2 of Se....