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2001 (1) TMI 921 - SC - Companies LawWhether the correction made by the appellant in the bid documents of respondent Nos.1 to 4 and consequential evaluation of their bid communicated with letter dated December 18, 1999 are valid in law? Whether respondents 1 to 4 are entitled to seek correction in their bid documents either under ITB or in equity and the direction given by the High Court to the appellant to permit the correction of errors, is sustainable? Held that:- The contract is, awarded normally to the lowest tenderer which is in public interest. The principle of awarding contract to the lowest tenderer applies when all things are equal. Merely because a bid is the lowest the requirements of compliance of rules and conditions cannot be ignored. It is obvious that the bid of respondent Nos.1 to 4 is the lowest of bids offered. As the bid documents of respondent Nos.1 to 4 stands without correction there will be inherent inconsistency between the particulars given in the annexure and the total bid amount, it cannot be directed to be considered along with other bid on the sole ground of being the lowest. We find no force in the submission that as under Clause 14.2 items against which no rate or price is entered by the bidder will not be paid by the employer when executed and shall be deemed covered by the other rates and prices in the bill of quantities, the unit price in items containing errors be ignored and the bid be considered on the basis of total price bid which is the lowest. In our view, there is a basic distinction between a case where against some items no rates or prices are quoted and a case where some rate is quoted. Whereas in the former case the bidder will not be entitled to claim any specific amount for the work done by him in the absence of any rate for that work, because in the aforementioned clause it is clarified that the bidders will not be paid by the employer and that the execution of the work shall be deemed covered by other rates and prices in the bill of quantities but in the latter case the bidder will be entitled to claim for the work executed on the basis of quoted price/rate. We may, however, clarify that the appellant is not obliged to award contract to any of the bidders at their quoted price bid. It is always open to the appellant to negotiate with the next lowest bidder for awarding the contract on economically viable price bid. For the reasons abovementioned, though the impugned order of the High Court insofar as it relates to quashing of letter of the appellant dated December 18, 1999, falls within the purview of judicial review, yet the direction to the appellant to permit correction of errors by respondents 1 to 4 in their bid documents and consider their bid along with other bid, goes far beyond the scope of judicial review. In the result, we uphold the impugned order of the Division Bench insofar as it relates to quashing of communication and letter dated December 18, 1999 and set aside that part of the impugned order giving direction to the appellant to permit respondent Nos.1 to 4 to correct bid documents and to consider their bid after correction along with other bids. The appeal is thus allowed in part. On the facts and in the circumstances of this case we leave the parties to bear their own costs.
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