Court's Interference In Infrastructure Tenders On Technical Grounds Will Cause Huge Loss To State Exchequer: Allahabad High Court

The Allahabad High Court has recently held that interference by High Court in tenders relating to infrastructure development, on technical grounds, will cause huge loss to State Exchequer and judicial interference in such matters must not be done unless specific and cogent grounds are made out that indicate arbitrariness.The bench of Justice Shekhar B. Saraf and Justice Prashant Kumar held,“The attempts of the unsuccessful bidder is with imaginary grievances, wounded pride and business rivalry. The petitioner by means of the instant writ petition is trying to make a mountain out of molehill by pointing out some technical/procedural violation, and persuade the court to interfere by exercising power of judicial review. Any interference by this Court would amount to holding up public works and would cause huge loss to the State Exchequer.”Petitioner, engaged in the business of constructing roads, participated in an E-Tender invited by the Superintending Engineer, Public Works Department, Pratapgarh. Petitioner pleaded that though he had submitted objections against M/s Arunima Constructions, it was allowed to participate in the financial bid and was eventually declared the successful bidder. Petitioner challenged the rejection of its bid and letter of acceptance awarded to M/s Arunima Constructions. Relying on various Supreme Court judgments where Courts have been directed to refrain from interfering in contractual matters, the Court held that judicial review of administrative action can only be permitted to check whether the decision is made 'lawfully' and not to check whether the decision is 'sound'. “When the power of judicial review is invoked in matters relating to tenders or award of contracts, certain special features should be borne in mind. A contract is a commercial transaction. Evaluating tenders and awarding contracts are essentially commercial functions. If the decision relating to award of contract is bona fide and is in public interest, courts will not interfere in exercise of power of judicial review, even if a procedural aberration or error in assessment or prejudice to a tenderer is made out.”The Court observed that even though objections were invited on the portal, the petitioner never raised any objection there within the stipulated time. Holding that the 72 hours provided for filing objections are crucial, the Court held that no objections can be raised after closure of the opportunity. Noting that the allegations in the petition regarding malafide were vague, the Court held that writ jurisdiction cannot be invoked for protecting private interest or contractual disputes. Observing that petitioner's bid was rejected for concealing facts, the Court held that the petitioner had approached the Court with unclean hands. Accordingly, the writ petition was dismissed. Case Title: M/S A.S. Traders Thru. Executive Partner Sri Rahul Singh Versus State of U.P. Thru. Prin. Secy. Deptt. of Public Works Lko. and 6 others [WRIT - C No. - 4673 of 2025]Click Here To Read/Download Order

Court's Interference In Infrastructure Tenders On Technical Grounds Will Cause Huge Loss To State Exchequer: Allahabad High Court

Upasna Agrawal

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