Rajasthan High Court granted relief to an unsuccessful bidder, whose filing of an appeal via the CPWD (Central Public Works Department) e-tender portal was disputed, by opining that a person could not be allowed to remain remediless.

The bench of Justice Anoop Kumar Dhand allowed the petitioner to submit an offline copy of the memo of appeal before the concerned department within 24 hours and directed the department to decide the same expeditiously. The Court stayed the tender process till final disposal of the appeal.

For context, the petitioner had participated in an auction in which his technical bid was rejected. It was contended by the petitioner that he had submitted an appeal via the web-portal and had also received a pop-up on the window that affirmed successful filing of the appeal.

The petitioner further contended that he had pressed the “close” button for such successful filing of the appeal, despite the fact that no specific instruction were appearing indicating that pressing the “close” button was mandatory for submission of the appeal.

On the contrary, it was argued by the State that the appeal submitted by the petitioner could not be considered as submitted, since the same was not received by the department. It was further argued that the petitioner was at fault since he had not properly completed the process by pressing “close” button. Hence, it could not be assumed that the appeal was submitted.

The State submitted that since the appeal was not filed within the stipulated time, it had no option but to proceed further with the tender process.

After hearing the contentions, the Court highlighted that it was a disputed fact whether the “close” button was pressed or not, which could not be adjudicated by the Court. However, the Court observed,

“At the same time, this Court cannot lose sight of the fact that a person cannot be allowed to remain remediless. The Latin maxim ubi jus ibi remedium comes into play, which says that no person can be denied to pursue his remedy. In the instant case, the petitioner has tried to pursue the remedy, as prescribed in the tender process of the respondent- Department. A person of ordinary prudence, upon seeing the words “appeal reasons submitted successfully” on the portal, could reasonably believe that the appeal has been successfully submitted, particularly in the absence of any clear and specific indication that the 'Close' button was required to be pressed for completion of the successful submission of the process.”

In this light, the Court allowed the petitioner to submit the appeal in the offline mode to the department within 24 hours, and directed the department to adjudicate it expeditiously. Till the final disposal of the appeal, the Court stayed the tender process.

Title: M/s K.K. Gupta Constructions Private Limited v Union of India & Ors.

Citation: 2026 LiveLaw (Raj) 341

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