M.R.SHAH, J. - (1.) Feeling aggrieved and dissatisfied with the impugned judgment and order passed by the High Court of Gujarat passed in Special Civil Application No.5815 of 2021 preferred by the respondent no.1 herein- original writ petitioner (hereinafter referred to as the "original writ applicant "), by which, the High Court has disposed of the said writ petition by directing the respondent no.2- ONGC to finalize the contract with the original writ applicant on the condition that the writ applicant shall lift the gas within 65 days from the date of allotment instead of 75 days as offered by it earlier.
(2.) That the respondent ONGC invited "Expressions of Interest " (EOI) on 22.07.2020 for demand assessment for natural gas produced from the two fields. As per the EOI, the demand assessment for the natural gas in the area was to be undertaken by ONGC and the ultimate approval for allocation was to come from Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas, Government of India. If allotted, the gas supply would operate for a period of five years from the date of award. It appears from the pleadings that only three applicants were interested in sourcing the natural gas from two fields advertised by ONGC viz. (1) original writ applicant - Nobel Cera Coat, (2) Vaibhavi Enterprise- appellant in Civil Appeal No. 6289 of 2021 and (3) Tanish Cerachem Private Limited - appellant in Civil Appeal No. 6290 of 2021. Nobel Cera Coat submitted their interest in sourcing natural gas from both VAD#3 and VAD#5. Vaibhavi Enterprise submitted their interest for VAD#3 and Tanish Cerachem Private Limited submitted their interest for sourcing gas for VAD#5. That thereafter, ONGC sought approval of Ministry for gas allocation. When the matter was pending consideration before the Union Government, in December 2020, one of the applicant- Tanish Cerachem Private Limited revised its response and offered to commence offtake of gas within 65 days of allotment. At this stage, it is required to be noted that the writ applicant offered to lift gas from the field / block situated at a place called Vadtal, District Bhavnagar within a period of 75 days. As per the case of the appellant having regard to the revised offer from Tanish Cerachem Private Limited, the ONGC thought it fit to re-invite the bids from all the three shortlisted applicants and accordingly on 08.03.2021, ONGC invited all the three applicants to place fresh bids. As per the case of the appellant, Vaibhavi Enterprise submitted to the fresh tendering process and submitted its bid. However, the writ applicant did not submit any fresh bid. The writ applicant filed a writ petition before the High Court challenging the ONGC letter dated 08.03.2021 so far as it calls for "expected period of readiness to offtake gas from ONGC 's offer letter ". The writ applicant also prayed for issuance of writ of mandamus directing the ONGC to proceed with the award of gas allocation on the basis of offer received in response to the ONGC/EOI/Vadtal GAS/2020 dated 22.07.2020. At this stage, it is required to be noted that though the Union of India was the ultimate authority to approve the bid / allocation of gas, in the writ petition neither the Ministry nor other applicants viz. Vaibhavi Enterprise and Tanish Cerachem Private Limited were impleaded as party respondents. From the impugned order passed by the High Court, it appears that the matter came up before the Division Bench on 19.08.2021 and Union of India was ordered to be arrayed as respondent no.3 and notice was made returnable on 26.08.2021. Thereafter, matter was heard by the Division Bench on 16.09.2021. Before the High Court, learned ASG appearing on behalf of the Union of India placed on record the communication dated 08.03.2021, which was directed to be taken on record. Thereafter, the matter was kept for further hearing on the very next date i.e. 20.09.2021. At the time of hearing of the writ petition, the writ applicant reduced days for lifting gas from 75 days to 65 days. Having noted the submissions on behalf of the ONGC that the writ applicant has agreed to lift the gas within 75 days, however, in view of the fact that one of the applicant was ready and willing to lift the gas within 65 days and therefore, the offer in favour of the writ applicant was not finalized and therefore, the ONGC was in dilemma. That thereafter by permitting the writ applicant to reduce the days for lifting gas from 75 days to 65 days, thereafter, the High Court by the impugned judgment and order has disposed of the said writ petition by directing the Corporation to finalize the contract with the writ applicant on the condition that the writ applicant shall lift the gas within 65 days from the date of allotment. Feeling aggrieved and dissatisfied with the impugned order passed by the High Court, the other to applicants viz. Tanish Cerachem Private Limited and Vaibhavi Enterprise have preferred present appeals.
(3.) We have heard Shri Santosh Krishnan, learned counsel appearing for the appellant and Shri Saurav Agrawal, learned counsel appearing for the original writ applicant who is on caveat and Shri Vikramjit Banerjee, learned ASG appearing on behalf of the ONGC.;