- (1.) The petitioner is the owner of Hard Coke Plant and is carrying on business of manufacturing and sale of Beehive/ Metallurgical Coke. Respondent No. 1 Hindustan -inc Ltd. is a Govt. of India enterprise. The practice of respondent No. 1 is to invite open tender for getting supply of Metallurgical Coke for its Tundoo and Vizag Smelters situated in Dhanbad (Bihar) and Visakhapatnam (Andhra Pradesh). In pursuance of the aforesaid practice, respondent No. 1 invited tender being tender No. H-L/ HO/ CONT/4(33) dated 16-7-1996 for supply of 5000 M.T. Metallurgical Coke of the specified specification for Tundoo and Vizag Smelters. The petitioner submitted his tender and deposited the amount of Rs. one lac. As per instruction No. 8 of the said tender, three parties did not submit C.F.R.I. reports along with the tender, though it was essential for checking the quality of the coke. Only one party furnished C.F.R.I. report and the quality of coke offered by that party was not found to be as per standard referred to in the tender. Moreover, some of the parties who had purchased tender documents had informed that they could not submit their offer as the time for getting C.F.R.I. report was not adequate. Considering the aforesaid facts, it was decided by the respondents to invite fresh tender being tender No. H-/HO/CONT/4 (34), dated 3-9-1996. Respondent No. 2 Chief Manager (Contracts), Hindustan -inc Ltd., Udaipur sent to the petitioner a set of fresh tender papers free of cost fixing the last date 18-10-1996 for submission of tender. The last date for submission of tender, was later on extended from 18-10-1996 to 14-11-1996 and intimation to that effect was sent to the parties. The notice inviting tender prescribed quality of coke to be supplied :- Quantity : 2000 MT for Tundoo Smelter and 3000 MT for Visakhapatnam Smelter on phased delivery basis. Specification of Metallurgical Coke : (i) Ash : 26% Max. (ii) Moisture : 4% Max. (iii) Volatile Matter : 1% Max. (iv) Size : 100 mm to 150 mm (v) Porosity : 45% + /-2% (vi) Fixed Carbon : 72% Min. (vii) Sulphur : 1% Max. The tender notice requires that the offer of the tender must accompany EMD, latest analysis certificate from C.F.R.I., Dhanbad for the quality of coke, else the offer may be ignored. The tender submission offer was required to be submitted in two parts in two separate sealed covers. Part I covers the specification of the quality of the coke offered along with E.M.D. as well as latest C.F.R.I. test report and Part covers coke price as per the format shown in Annexure-C. The envelope Part of the offer of price would not be opened along with Part I, that is to say, Part I will be opened first and thereafter Part would be opened and the day and time would be informed to the party in due course. After the submission of the tender, Part I was opened on due date and a Committee of four persons was constituted for evaluation and finalisation of the tender.
(2.) The Committee considered the tenders of seven parties whose tenders were received against the tender notice. The Committee found in regard to the petitioner; M/s. Basuda Udyog, respondent No. 7 and M/s. Friends Coal Enterprises, respondent No. 8 as under : "M/s. Basuda Udyog : They have confirmed to supply coke as per tender. However, CFRI report does not indicate results of porosity, sulphur -and size. They have in general accepted H-L commercial conditions. They have indicated price variation clause which is based on variation in coal and diesel prices. They have offered to supply 500 MT Coke per month for V-S and 500 MT for LST and have stated to supply more with prior intimation. They are H-L's existing supplier. M/s. Friends Coal Carbonisation : They have been offered to supply coke as per tender specifications and quantity. The CFRI report submitted by them confirms quality of coke as per tender except the size requirement. The size analysis given is not complete and requires clarification. They have accepted H-L commercial conditions with deviations in respect of payment terms, weight variation and price variation. The price variation offered is based on variation in coal and diesel prices. They are H-L's existing supplier. M/s. Jagdhatri Coke Manufacturers : They have offered to supply coke as per tender specifications and quantity. They have furnished four Nos. CFRI reports dated 30-6l995, 2-8-1996, 24-9-1996 and 1-10-1996. The latest CFRI report dated 1-10-1996 furnished by them does not meet tender specifications with regard to porosity and VM. The other three reports indicate that quality of coke is not as per tender specifications. They have in general accepted H-L's tender conditions. Price variation clause offered by them is based on variation in coal price. They were awarded trial order for 500 MT Coke for LST against H-L's Tender No. H-L/ HO/ CONT/ 4(27) with option to increase quantity up to 500 MT." And on the basis of the evaluation, the Committee found that quality offered by the tenderers is not completely matching with tender specifications except that of M/s. Friends Coal, respondent No. 8. The Committee further found that M/s. Basuda Udyog, respondent No. 7 and M/s. Jagdamba Coke have confirmed to supply coke as per tender quality but their C.F.R.I. reports are not complete. These reports do not have analysis for porosity and size. The Committee found that M/s. Basuda Udyog have been supplying coke to the Company and their quality has been found to be satisfactory and decided that offer of M / s. Basuda Udyog can be considered technically acceptable, even though the C.F.R.I. report submitted by them is incomplete. As regards the petitioner, the Committee found that they have offered to supply coke as per tender specification and quality but the quality of coke as per C.F.R.I. report is not as per tender. The deviations are regarding porosity and volatile matter and performance is not fully satisfied and thereafter recommended that offer of M / s. Friends Coal Carbonisation, Calcutta, respondent No. 8 be-accepted subject to confirmation of size, M / s. Basuda Udyog, Dhanbad, respondent No. 7 subject to, confirmation on porosity, sulphur and size and M /s. Jagdamba Coke Manufacturing Enterprise, Calcutta for trial order subject to verification by H-L team and C. F. R. I. report for porosity and size. According to the recommendations made by the Committee, respondent No. 1 has rejected the tender Part I document of the petitioner and has invited respondent No. 7 M / s. Basuda Udyog and respondent No. 8 M/s. Friends Coal Enterprises for price negotiation. As regards respondent No. 6 Jagdamba Coke Manufacturer Enterprise Ltd., Dhanbad, it is submitted by respondent No. 1 that a team was deputed to scrutinise their work and after inspection and scrutinising their work, the respondent was not satisfied and they came to the conclusion that they cannot supply the coke as per tender specification and as such, the tender of respondent No. 6 was not considered and it was rejected.
(3.) The petitioner has challenged the action of respondent No. 2 in inviting respondents Nos. 7 and 8 for price negotiation and in consequence thereof, placement of the order for supply of Metallurgical Coke at Tundoo and Vizag Smelters Plants of respondent No. 1 on the ground that the petitioner and these respondents are not being equally treated. The petitioner's tender was rejected on the ground that it would not be able to supply the quality of coke required whereas the tenders of respondents Nos. 7 and 8 were accepted although they suffered with same disqualification of quality.;