situation of ‘amalgamation’ and ‘merger’ of businesses into the bidder company, by reason of which the core business for which the tender was floated, alongwith all experience, expertise, human, technological and infrastructural resources, was being transferred into the bidder company and not out of it. It was in these circumstances that the Supreme Court and Division Bench of the High Court in those cases decided that the bidder would not suffer any disqualification. What is more, is that in the present case, a conjoint reading of clause Nos. 25.4 and 30.1 of the tender conditions makes it clear that the respondents had, in its discretion, decided that the qualification of a parent or other affiliated company, which is not a bidder or party to a bidderconsortium, shall not be considered when assessing the qualification of the bidder ; and further that if, after being pre-qualified, there is any change in the structure of the bidder company, such change ‘shall be subject to written approval of the employer prior to the deadline for submission of the bid’, thereby conveying the unequivocal intention not to permit inter alia restructuring of bidder corporations without the respondents’ written approval ; and that too, prior to the bid submission deadline. In fact in clause No. 30.1, the respondents clearly specified that one of the grounds for not according approval for restructuring is that as a consequence of the change, the bidder may no longer substantially meet the qualification criteria for the tender.
