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2018 (2) TMI 847 - HC - Companies LawE-auction - non-deposit of the security money and request for “adjustments” - withdrawal of LOIs - Held that:- The impugned letters of the NDMC withdrawing the LoIs is based on justifiable grounds, inter alia: violation of the conditions of the NIT by the Petitioners (such as, non-deposit of the security money and request for “adjustments” not provided for in the NIT, in the case of Honshu), and engaging in business relationships with black-listed companies in violation of the conditions of the NIT. No reason to interfere with the decisions of the NDMC. The decision to award a public contract is not premised merely on fulfillment of technical qualification and financial viability of the offer of a given bidder; the larger public interest is a necessary condition which invariably informs every decision of the executive authority or agency that is to award the contract. The vital public interest in ensuring that contracts are awarded to genuine bidders, and not to those who devise myriad devices to keep out true competition on one hand, and corner contracts- in this case, in relation to parking lots cannot be undermined. The NDMC thus had a vital interest in ensuring that the group of individuals, who adopted the stratagem of ensuing that they “rotated” the contracts, through different entities, which came to light in the financial linkage between them – as well as controls through the same set of people does not hamper the transparency of the bidding process. This linkage was also evident from other materials such as common email identities of some of the entities; common premises and, in some cases, common directors or individuals controlling the entities. Further, the cancellation of the letters of intent by NDMC and thereby rejecting the tender bids of the Petitioners cannot be accepted to be arbitrary and malafide as such decision is based on concrete grounds, and opportunity was afforded to the petitioners to negate the same and make their stance when Show Cause Notices to that end were sent to them by the NDMC, as mentioned previously.
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