Delhi High Court today rejected infrastructure major Larsen & Toubro's (L&T) plea against the state-run NTPC's decision to disqualify it on technical grounds from bidding for Rs 25,000 crore-bulk tender for the purchase of power equipments.
A Bench of Justice Badar Durrez Ahmed and Justice Manmohan Singh declined the plea of the company, saying "the writ petition has no merit and the same is dismissed".
NTPC (National Thermal Power Corporation) had rejected the bid of engineering major on the grounds that the Deed of Joint Undertaking (DJU), which was to be submitted by all the bidders, was found to be not in accordance with the prescribed format and was, therefore, regarded as being non-compliant.
As per the NTPC rules, bidders were supposed to have a joint venture with one foreign party and furnish an undertaking, 'Bid of Joint Undertaking' (BJU) that they both would be liable for the execution and performance of the contract.
In the initial bid, L&T had limited the obligation of its partner Mitsubishi to the equipment supplied by it, which did not conform to the terms of the bid documents.
Accepting the PSU's submission, advanced by Additional Solicitor General Parag Tripathi, the Bench said, "We agree with the submission of Tripathi (ASG) appearing for NTPC that the employer in determining the responsiveness of a bid should only look at the contents of the bid itself and not take recourse to extrinsic evidence."
NTPC had invited bids for the supply and installation of 11 Steam Turbine Generator for its various super-thermal power projects. The bids were to be held in two stages.
The first stage comprised of Techno-Commercial Bid and the second, the Price Bid. It is only those parties which cleared the Techno-Commercial stage, who would be entitled to submit their Price Bids in Stage-II.