Sudip Ahluwalia, J. - (1.) The petitioner and the private respondent were both rival bidders for a contract to supply food in a 325 bedded Hospital. Their price quotations were found to be equal and they were both granted the contract for half of the total duration on a rotational basis for six months each. The petitioner was granted the first rotational span of six months for the first half of 2015. Thereafter the private respondent supplied the food for the remaining six months. Now in 2016 the petitioner by rotation is again presently supplying the food.
(2.) However in the month of January 2015, during his first rotational period, the petitioner submitted a representation challenging the joint award of the contract by contending that the private respondent did not possess the requisite eligibility for supplying the cooked food, as was discovered from the documents, which could be downloaded by the petitioner subsequently. As no action was taken on his representation the petitioner approached this Court and has prayed for a writ in the nature of 'Mandamus' to command the respondents to cancel, rescind, withdraw and/or forbear from giving any effect/further effect to the decision contained in the letter dated 31st of December, 2014 by virtue of which the contract for supply of cooked food in the Jangipur Sub -Divisional Hospital was jointly awarded to the petitioner and the private respondent on a rotational basis for the three years, being 2015 to 2017.
(3.) Now according to the petitioner, he could access the tender documents submitted on behalf of the private respondent only after the impugned Work Order had already been issued, since the same were uploaded by the respondents on their website on that very date i.e., the 31st of December 2014. From those documents he was able to ascertain that the private respondent did not fulfil the requisite eligibility criteria since he had supplied cooked food in the past only to 100 bedded Hospitals, which was therefore far less than the quantum of 325 beds in the concerned Hospital in which the food was to be supplied.;