JABALPUR, India, Nov. 7 -- Madhya Pradesh High Court issued the following judgment/order on Oct. 9:

1. Petitioner impugns the communication dated 28.08.2025, 10.09.2025 and 11.09.2025, whereby petitioner was informed that the bid of the petitioner has been rejected.

2. Petitioner had earlier approached this Court by way of a writ petition being WP No.35735/2025 contending that the reasons for rejection of the bid had not been communicated. Pending the said petition the reasons were communicated and accordingly petitioner sought leave to withdraw the petition with liberty to file a fresh petition. Consequently, the subject petition has been filed.

3. By communication dated 10.09.2025 (impugned herein) petitioner was informed as under;

"As per tender condition contained in Annexure/F for Technical Eligibility Criteria' Note (iii) the "The list of works as mentioned in the above table supported with documentary proof (Work Completion/Experience Certificate issued by_the organizations for whom the work was carried out) shall only be considered for evaluating the Technical Eligibility Criteria. "(Page 102-104 of Tender Document) .

As per tender condition- Explanation for clause 10 including clause 10.1 to 10.4 - Eligibility Criteria: point 1."Substantially Completed Work means an ongoing work in which payment equal to or more than 90% of the present contract value (excluding the payment made for adjustment of Price variation (PVC), if any) has been mide to the contractor in that ongoing contract and no proceedings of termination of contract on Contractor's default has been initiated. The credential certificate in this regard should have been issued not prior to 60 days of date of invitation of present tender." (Pagel5 of Tender Document).

The NIT was issued on 11.06.2025 and as per tender condition above the cut off date, for issuing of Completion/Experience Certificate by the organization for whom the work was carried out, was 12.04.2025 (60 days prior to invitation of present tender). M/s KRCL, Navi-Mumbai submitted a certificate No186-Elect/C/J&K/ - , Work Completion Certificate dated27.01.2025 issued by Dy.CEE/USBRL, NR, Jammu.

It was observed that the certificate was signed by the issuing authority on 27.01.2025 which is not within the 60 days prior to invitation of tender as stated in the tender condition. Thus, the issued certificate was not as per tender conditionExplanation for clause 10 including clause 10.1 to 10.4 - Eligibility Criteria: point 1 -Thus, KRCL did not fulfil Technical Eligibility Criteria as per tender condition.

This is for your kind information please."

4. As per the tender condition, petitioner could take benefit for the purposes of evaluation of eligibility criteria of completed work, substantially completed work or physically completed work. 5. Petitioner in the instant case is seeking to place reliance on physically completed work. As per the explanation to Clause 10 of the tender condition, the document required to be submitted was to show that the bidder had completed three similar works of not less than 30% of the advertised value of tender or 2 similar works of not less than 40% advertised tender value or one similar work of not less than 60% advertised value. Petitioner claims that petitioner has executed one similar work equal to 60% of the advertised value.

*Rest of the document can be viewed at: (https://mphc.gov.in/upload/jabalpur/MPHCJB/2025/WP/39818/WP_39818_2025_FinalOrder_09-10-2025_digi.pdf)

Disclaimer: Curated by HT Syndication.