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2022 (3) TMI 1589 - SC - Indian LawsInterference in contract awarded to the Appellant - power of judicial review - HELD THAT:- The interference in contract awarded to the Appellant is wholly unwarranted and has caused loss to public interest. Construction of roads is an essential part of development of infrastructure in any State. The learned Single Bench and the Division Bench of the High Court were exercising power of judicial review to find out whether the decision of the State was manifestly arbitrary or unjust as laid down by this Court in TATA CELLULAR VERSUS UNION OF INDIA [1994 (7) TMI 307 - SUPREME COURT] and to act as appellate authority over the decision of the State. In AFCONS INFRASTRUCTURE LTD. VERSUS NAGPUR METRO RAIL CORPORATION LTD. & ANR. [2016 (9) TMI 1292 - SUPREME COURT], this Court held that the owner or the employer of a project, having authored the tender documents, is the best person to understand and appreciate its requirements and interpret its documents. The satisfaction whether a bidder satisfies the tender condition is primarily upon the authority inviting the bids. Such authority is aware of expectations from the tenderers while evaluating the consequences of non-performance. In the tender in question, there were 15 bidders. Bids of 13 tenderers were found to be unresponsive i.e., not satisfying the tender conditions. The writ Petitioner was one of them. It is not the case of the writ Petitioner that action of the Technical Evaluation Committee was actuated by extraneous considerations or was malafide. Therefore, on the same set of facts, different conclusions can be arrived at in a bona-fide manner by the Technical Evaluation Committee. Since the view of the Technical Evaluation Committee was not to the liking of the writ Petitioner, such decision does not warrant for interference in a grant of contract to a successful bidder. The Writ Court should refrain itself from imposing its decision over the decision of the employer as to whether or not to accept the bid of a tenderer. The Court does not have the expertise to examine the terms and conditions of the present-day economic activities of the State and this limitation should be kept in view. Courts should be even more reluctant in interfering with contracts involving technical issues as there is a requirement of the necessary expertise to adjudicate upon such issues. The action of the Respondent in setting aside the letter of acceptance granted to the Appellant suffers from manifest illegality and cannot be sustained. Consequently, the appeal is disposed of with a direction to the Respondent State to allow the Appellant to resume and complete the work by excluding the period spent in the stay of execution of the contract. Appeal disposed off.
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