- (1.) This case is an apt illustration of Shakespearean adage 'Much ado about nothing'. The non-matching patent printing errors in a part of tender documents have been blown out of proportion, which has resulted in filing of this petition under Article 226 of the Constitution for commanding the respondent-Power Grid Corporation to accept the price of the 125MVAR, 420Kv 3Ph Bus Reactor (excluding insulating oil) as has been given in Schedule-1 and to accordingly amend the letter of award dated 25.3.2008 (P-10) to make it consonance with the offer made by the petitioner Company in its price proposal (Schedule 1) of the Bid Form. Still further it has been prayed to direct the respondent not to invoke the bank guarantee amounting to Rs. 96,97,000/-(P-3).
(2.) Brief facts of the case are that the petitioner is a Limited Company incorporated under the provisions of the Companies Act, 1956 (for brevity, 'the 1956 Act'), having roots which are wide spread in the Country. The head office of the petitioner is located at Kolkata whereas its administrative office is situated at Noida (Uttar Pradesh). It is claimed that the workforce of the petitioner is spread across 8 industrial sites in Bangalore, Chennai and Pondicherry as well as in Calcutta, Naini and Delhi besides 22 regional sales offices. There are four business units of the petitioner in the country. The Baroda Division of the petitioner is stated to have invested 34 million Euros in the construction of a facility to manufacture ultra-high voltage power transformers, which would enable our country to meet domestic demand of energy and achieve world-class standards through state-of-the-art technology. It has further been claimed that the petitioner enjoys 70% market share in the Energy Management System segment for transmission networks. It has supplied and commissioned India's first 765KV substation in 2007 for the NTPC Sipat plant. 80% of New Delhi's electricity flows through this sub-station. It has 20% market share in HVDC technology for inter-regional power exchanges and has the largest number of GIS references in India. It also provides Network Consultancy contract for Reliance Energy's Delhi and Mumbai networks, the first of its kind in India. The petitioner has also carried out modernization of Bhutan's electricity network.
(3.) The respondent-Power Grid Corporation is a Limited Company and an enterprise of the Government of India. On 18.6.2007, the respondent issued an advertisement floating Global Tenders inviting bids for Shunt Reactors Package (Supply & Erection) for 400KV Purena & Siliguri Substations associated with eastern region strengthening Scheme-II and 400KV Sonepat Substation accociated with NRSS-XII projects (Annexure P-1). On 2.7.2007, bid documents were issued by the respondents which includes (i) Instruction to Bidders (ITB); (ii) General Conditions of Contract (GCC); (iii) Special Conditions of Contract (SCC); (iv) Schedule of Requirements (SOR); (v) Technical Specifications (TS); (vi) Forms for bid security, contract agreement, performance security and others (FORMS); (vii) Bid form, price and other schedules (Bid Proposal Sheets); and (viii) data requirement sheets [Annexure P-2 (Colly)].;