Hyderabad: Justice S. Nanda of the Telangana High Court directed the Civil Supplies Corporation to permit three contractors to bid for a transport tender. The judge passed the interim order while hearing a writ plea filed by Om Siva Sai Logistics and two logistics companies. They were successful bidders for transport of paddy and gunny bags.
The present writ petition questioned the tender condition which disqualifies a tenderer whose earnest money deposit was forfeited. It was the case of the petitioners that the earlier bid period of an earlier contract had expired without any work being assigned to the petitioner. Senior counsel L. Ravichander pointed out that the petitioners could not be faulted for the error of the corporation.
Ravichander specifically referred to the documents of the corporation which showed that the earlier tender bid was only for a period of 90 days and had expired in January 2023. Instead of returning the EMD, the corporation not only proceeded illegally, he said, forfeiting the EMD but also disqualified the petitioners from future tenders. Senior counsel also argued that such actions were highly arbitrary and illegal.
