HI-TECH CONSTRUCTION AND CO. Vs. CHIEF SECRETARY, GOVT. OF NAGALAND

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Heard Mr. S. Borgohain, learned counsel appearing for the petitioner, Mr. T.B. Jamir, learned Senior Additional AG appearing for the State respondent, and Mr. R. Iralu, learned Senior Counsel assisted by Mr. L. Iralu, for the private respondents.

(2.) These three applications are taken up together for disposal pursuant to the order passed by the Division Bench of this Court in its Judgment and Order dtd. 8/2/2022 in Writ Appeal No. 3/2022, Writ Appeal No. 361/2021, Writ Appeal No. 359/2021 and Writ Appeal No. 360/2021. The brief facts of the instant case is that on 24/7/2019, the Under Secretary to the Government of India, Ministry of Development of North Eastern Region had issued a communication to the Secretary of North Eastern Council thereby conveying Administrative and Financial sanction for an amount of Rs.136.96 Crores for the project "Tening to Lekie Road" (37.5 kms) in Nagaland under the 100% Central Sector Scheme "North-East Road Sector Development Scheme" (NERSDS); and pursuant to the said communication dtd. 24/7/2019, the Adviser to the North Eastern Council by its letter dtd. 5/8/2019 had accorded the Administrative approval to the Public Works Department (PWD), Government of Nagaland at an estimated cost of Rs.136.96 crores as per the broad break up of the items of the work given in Annexure-1 of the said communication towards the road project "Tening to Lekie Road" (37.5 kms) in Nagaland under the 100% Central Sector Scheme "North-East Region Sector Development Scheme"(NERSDS). On the basis of the said approval, the Chief Engineer, PWD (R and B) issued a notice inviting tender, vide NIT No. CE/(R and B)/NERSDS/CORR(Part I)/2019-20 dtd. 13/9/2019 in respect to five different works including the work "Tening to Lekie Road" in Nagaland. The said NIT was published in the local newspapers in the State of Nagaland.

(3.) The petitioner Nos. 1 and 2 who claims to be Class-1 contractors registered with the Nagaland Public Works Department and interested to participate in the competitive bidding process initiated on the basis of the NIT dtd. 13/9/2019 for the work "Tening to Lekei Road" in Nagaland mentioned at Serial No. 4 of the said NIT filed a Writ Petition No. 187/2019, assailing certain criteria adopted by the respondent authorities in respect of the work in question in NIT dtd. 13/9/2019 and more particularly with respect to the lowest rate/approved rate/SOR apart from the decision taken in the pre-bid meeting dtd. 24/9/2019. It was the specific case of the petitioner Nos. 1 and 2 in the said proceedings that the process adopted by the respondent authorities in respect of the work were contrary to the guidelines in the communication dtd. 5/3/2019 of the Ministry of Road, Transport and Highways (MoRTH), Government of India, and the Conditions No. 2 (vi) of the communication dtd. 5/8/2019 issued by the North Eastern Council Secretariat (NECS) while granting the administrative approval to the NPWD for the work in question. The said Writ Petition was registered and numbered as WPC/187/2019. This Court vide its order dtd. 1/10/2019 issued notice making it returnable by 1/11/2019 but did not grant any interim order as prayed for therein, and thereby deferred the consideration of the interim order to 1/11/2019. In the meanwhile, the petitioner Nos. 1 and 2 participated in the said tender process by submitting a bid as a joint venture that is "Vertex-Multi Builder-Hi-Tech. On 19/10/2019, the technical bid was opened in which the said joint venture, i.e., "Vertex-Multi Builder-Hi-Tech", along with two other bidders were found to be technically viable and on 21/10/2019, the financial bid was opened and it was found that the price quoted by the joint venture i.e., "Vertex-Multi Builder-Hi-Tech" was the lowest at Rs.1,22,94,22,509.75p.