Monarch Surveyours and Engineering Consultants Limited v. Union of India through the General Manager and 2 Ors.
Case brief
What is this about?
Judicial review of tender award; tie between two L-1 bidders resolved by higher bid capacity under Clause 6.0 of Railway Board policy circular dated 18 February 2018; Central Railways; Letter of Acceptance and Letter of Intent; rules of the game not changed mid-process; no re-negotiation required; Wednesbury reasonableness and arbitrariness standards; Tata Cellular, Educomp Datamatics, Global Energy, Narendrakumar Maheshwari relied on; Reliance Energy, Ram and Shyam, Monarch Infrastructure, Tej Prakash Pathak distinguished; writ petition dismissed.
What did the court decide?
Clause 6.0 of the Railway Board policy circular dated 18 February 2018 provides that where there is more than one L-1 bidder, the tender may be awarded to the tenderer having higher bid capacity; Respondent No.3 admittedly had higher bid capacity than the Petitioner, and Central Railways therefore took a decision to award the contract to Respondent No.3.