An Important Finding

 An Important Finding : - 

Refer page nos. 10 and 11 of Sanjit Chandra Das v. AFDC Ltd [2023] GCtR 2293 (Gauhati) which noted : - 

"In a dual bid process, each bidder must satisfy the conditions of technical qualification. In the extant tender process, submission of a valid Bakijai Clearance Certificate was an inviolable requirement. The Bakijai Clearance Certificate is demanded to ensure the financial stability of the bidders. The appellant cannot be allowed to take a plea of ignorance of this mandatory technical criterion after having participated in the tender process. The Bakijai Clearance Certificate filed by the appellant had admittedly expired and thus, he cannot be allowed to retrace his steps and claim that requirement of furnishing the Bakijai Clearance Certificate was not mandatory as per the tender conditions. If at all, the appellant/writ petitioner was aggrieved by the said condition existing in the NIT, the same could have been challenged before participating in the tender process. The law is well settled that a party having participated in the tender process cannot be allowed to retrace its steps and take a u-turn and claim that the conditions of the NIT are illegal or unjustified after the process is over."

"In the present case, the tender process was based on a dual bidding system and thus, a strict evaluation of the technical bids so as to ensure compliance of the criterion laid down therein, which included the submission of a valid Bakijai Clearance Certificate, was inviolable. The tendering authority upon evaluation of the technical bids found that the appellant’s Bakijai Clearance Certificate had expired and thus, there was no option with the authority but to disqualify the appellant on the technical criterion. Level playing field was provided to the prospective bidders and thus, after opening of the technical bids, none of the bidders can be allowed to claim indulgence of relaxation in the technical criterion, which precisely is the prayer of the appellant herein."