Excelsior Correspondent
Srinagar, Mar 31: High Court dismissed the plea of a company challenging the Notice Inviting Tenders (NIT) issued by Jammu & Kashmir Bank for providing of security guards for the Bank but quashed the condition of baring the said company from further bidding process by saying the same is bad and illegal in the eyes of law.
The petitioner-M/S Datar Security Pvt Ltd engaged in the business of providing private security to various organizations throughout India, including the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir challenged the Bid of Central Security Department of the Jammu and Kashmir Bank Limited inviting from eligible parties for empanelment of reputed security agencies to provide security guards for J&K Bank Branches, ATMs, Offices, residential complexes and other Bank’s property in the UT of J&K, UT of Ladakh and other places in the country for a period of three years vide Reference No. JKB/CHQ/CS/F-76/2020-034 dated 28.02.2020.
It is after responding to the notification, the petitioner-company submitted its online bid (both technical as well as financial) on 11.06.2020 within the extended period for three zones, i.e. Zone of UT of J&K, Zone of UT of Ladakh and Zone Mohali.
Justice Sanjeev Kumar while deciding the petition said, that in the revised reverse auction, the respondent-Bank had sounded a note of caution that anybody quoting rate as nil/zero charges for Agency Commission, would not be considered for evaluation and such bid would be null and void.
This stipulation, court said, does not mean that any rate quoted by the bidder above “zero”, howsoever impracticable and unrealistic it may be, must be accepted by the employer. “As is elaborately discussed and unambiguously held that State or its instrumentality inviting bids for award of contract is well within its right to reject even a lowest bid provided the decision to reject such bid is not irrational, arbitrary and in violation of Article 14 of the Constitution of India”, Justice Kumar held.
“For the forgoing reasons the writ petition, insofar as it challenges the rejection of petitioner-company’s bid in the Reverse Auction as being “unrealistic?, is found to be without merit and dismissed. However, the condition laid down in the impugned order, which debars the petitioner- company from the further bidding process for three zones i.e. zone of UT of J&K, zone of UT for Ladakh and Mohali Zone, is found to be illegal and bad in the eye of law and, therefore, the impugned order to that extent is quashed”, Court concluded.
After going through the record produced by the respondent-Bank, court said, it indicates that the matter has been considered from all angles and the Committee, after obtaining the opinion from the Law Department of the Bank, has taken a decision to reject the unrealistic bid offered by the petitioner.
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