TARLOCHAN SINGH Vs. UNION OF INDIA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The instant appeal has been filed against the judgment dtd. 13/5/2022 passed in WP(C) No. 1776/2021 titled Tarlochan Singh and others V. Union of India and others whereby the learned Writ Court has refused to quash the Notice dtd. 20/8/2021 and dismissed the writ petition. Although without conceding to the prayer of the writ petitioners-appellants herein to allot additional requirement of Tank Trucks (TTs) yet the Writ Court granted liberty to respondent No.2-Corporation to consider their grievance as projected by them in the writ petition if the TTs are still required by them.

(2.) Factual matrix of the case, as is gatherable from perusal of the file, is that the respondents floated a Tender Notice No.RCC/NR/PSO/OPS/ PT-141/ 20-21 for transportation of bulk petroleum products by road for advanced winter supplies (AWS) for bulk Oil Storage and handling location in J&K (UT) for a period of three years with an option for extension up to further two years but at the sole discretion of the Corporation. As per clause 1.4 of NIT, the tenderer had to offer minimum three number of TTs in case of General and General MSE tenders and minimum two numbers in case of SC/ST. The tenderers had to participate with ready built TTs as well as with Purchase Invoice chassis. The writ petitioners-appellants, claiming to be eligible, participated in the tendering process and their rates were found as Lot-1 as the rates were quoted per KL/Km. In the Reverse Auction process, the tenderer was allowed to place his offer in terms of the percentage of the departmental estimate displayed on the portal and the band allowed for the same was 0% to -10% of the departmental estimate.

(3.) Before the Writ Court, the case projected by the writ petitioners-appellants in their writ petition was based on the claim that upon issuance of tender notice by respondent No.2, they participated in the bidding process for supplying TTs of 12-14KL capacity in the contract in question for advance supply and writ petitioners-appellants were also placed in Lot-1 of the lot system prescribed by the respondent No.2 in the NIT. The writ petitioners-appellants further projected that since engagement of the contractors was in the order, as prescribed in the NIT as per the ranking system evolved by the respondent No.2, as such, whatever was the shortfall in the TTs was to be fulfilled by allotting the same to the writ petitioners-appellants. Thus, the writ petitioners-appellants aggrieved of the Notice issued by the respondent No.3 dtd. 20/8/2021 whereby the existing advanced winter supplies transport contractors were asked to offer bids for the additional requirement of TTs (12-14 KL) instead of giving opportunity to the existing transport contractors to provide TTs to meet the shortfall of 25 TTs, had come up with a writ petition.