- (1.) CIVIL Appeal No. 6978 of 2009 @ SLP (C) 5461/2009 leave granted. This Appeal has been filed against the impugned judgment of the Division Bench of the High Court of Delhi dated 02nd February, 2009 passed in Writ Petition (C) No. 7865 of 2008.
(2.) THE facts in brief are: respondent No. 2 (Prasar Bharti) issued a Notice inviting Tender (NIT) on 20th October, 2006 for the supply of two transmitters of 1000 KW (or 1 MW) each. The bidding was a two-stage process involving a technical bid and a financial bid. There is no dispute that the respondent no. 1 (Arraycom) and the appellant (BECIL) were both technically qualified. In respect of the financial bid which was opened on 30th July, 2007, the quotation given by Arraycom was for a sum of Rs. 51. 57 crores and it was stated therein that: "1]. Prices at InR including Custom Duty, packaging, Forwarding, Freight and Insurance. 2]. CST (Central Sales Tax) is inclusive in the above prices. AIR will have to give concessional forms C/d. 3]. Billing will be done from our Noida office. 4]. Validity of offer upto 120 days from the date of opening (I. e. up to 16. 06. 2007 ). " The quotation given by BECIL was for Rs. 47. 35 crores and it was stated that: "1]. Prices in INR. FOR destination, including Freight, Insurance and Customs Duty. 2]. Sales Tax extra @ 4% against form C/d. 3]. Sales Tax extra @ 12. 5% in case form C/d is not provided. 4]. Validity of offer upto 31. 05. 2007. "
(3.) FOR the purposes of this decision, we are only concerned with the sales tax element in the price bid. We may note, as a matter of fact, that there is no dispute that Form C under the Central Sales Tax Act, 1956 is not relevant to the facts of the case and Form D under the central Sales Tax Act, 1956 was abolished with effect from 1st April, 2007. There is also no dispute that the bids of arraycom and BECIL were valid and subsisting at all material times. Based on the quotations, quoted above, Prasar Bharti submitted the following chart of quoted prices before the High Court: JUDGEMENT_1222_TLPRE0_2009Html1.htm ;