RANCHI, India, Aug. 13 -- Jharkhand High Court issued the following order on July 14:

1. The petitioner is a Joint Venture based in Kolkata. The respondent no.6 is also a Joint Venture based in Nagpur, Maharashtra.

2. The Central Coalfields Limited (3rd respondent), a subsidiary of Coal India Limited (2nd respondent) issued NIT No. CCL/GM(CMC)/A&C/GeM/2024/48 dt. 05.12.2024 (hereinafter referred to as the "Tender").

3. The scope of the work was Hiring of HEMM for removal of Over Burden, Extraction of coal by Surface Miner, Transportation to Shivpur Siding and Surface Stockyard under different lead slabs, and Wagon loading of coal at Shivpur Siding at Amrapali OCP, AmrapaliChandragupt Area for 07 years (Production period) and 360 days (Development period) (i.e. 2915 days). The estimated value of the tender was Rs.10206.53 Crore.

4. The said e-tender notice was floated on the GeM Portal (Respondent 5 in the writ petition) i.e. Government e-Marketplace, a Government of India enterprise.

5. The petitioner participated in the Tender and quoted 13.16% below the estimated value/ cost.

6. The respondent no.6 quoted 18.90% below the estimated value/ cost.

7. Thus, the respondent no.6 became L-1 and the petitioner was L-2 and the other 7 bidders had quoted higher than both of them and so we are not concerned with them.

8. The financial bid was opened on 28.4.2025 and respondent no.6 was issued the Letter of Acceptance on 2.7.2025 and thereafter, on 2.7.2025, the site for work was also handed over to it.

9. Importantly, this Writ Petition had been filed on 1.7.2025, a day before the issuance of Letter of Acceptance to the respondent no.6 on 2.7.2025 and it was registered on 10.7.2025.

10. We may point out that annexed to the tender were Additional Terms and Conditions (for short 'ATC') (Instruction to Bidder). Clause 23.6 of ATC, insofar as it is relevant for this case, states as under -

"23.6 There should be no provision in the Bid Documents regarding submission of Additional Security Deposit/Bank Guarantee (BG) in case of Abnormally Low Bids. There shall be a provision in the Bid document regarding Abnormally Low Bid that the Procuring Entity may in such cases seek written clarifications from the Bidder, including detailed price analyses of its bid price in relation to scope, schedule, allocation of risks and responsibilities, and any other requirements of the bids document If, after evaluating the price analyses, Procuring Entity determines that the Bidder has substantially failed to demonstrate its capability to deliver the contract at the offered price, the Procuring Entity may reject the bid/ proposal.

*Rest of the document can be viewed at: (https://hcservices.ecourts.gov.in/ecourtindiaHC/cases/display_pdf.php?filename=A9S7c5LDIsB6RXaCf816x6GKFHBGCWQp1TdZuPCPqcdh01aeQZ30jiMEaAi0x1k%2F&caseno=WPC/3436/2025&cCode=1&cino=JHHC010216382025&state_code=7&appFlag=)

Disclaimer: Curated by HT Syndication.