Judgment · High Court of Jammu & Kashmir and Ladakh

Through :- Mr. Sumit Moza, Advocate. V/s Union of India Chief Engineer, Udhampur Zone,

1. Through Secretary to Ministry of Defence Government of India, New Delhi-110001 2. Udhampur. 3. 135 Works Engineer C/O 56 APO, Akhnoor. Commander Works Engineer ….Respondent(s) Through :- Mr. Vishal Sharma, DSGI Coram: HON’BLE MR. JUSTICE WASIM SADIQ NARGAL, JUDGE ORDER 03.06.2024

The case is taken out of turn at the request of both the learned counsels for the parties.

It has been brought to the notice of this Court that this Court vide order dated 16.06.2023 has directed the respondents to consider the bids of the petitioner in the financial evaluation stage in CWE/JA-44/2022-23 and CEW/JA- 03/2023-24 as well as along with other qualified bidders in the financial evaluation stage and, in case, the petitioner otherwise fails in its financial bids evaluation, then to reject it on that count, however, in case the petitioner’s bids are found to be the lowest one as being L-1, then the issue of allocation of the 2 WP(C) No. 1640/2023 contracts vis-à-vis the respective NIT will be considered only upon the adjudication of the matter in the present writ.

Mr. Vishal Sharma, learned DSGI appearing on behalf of the respondents submits that interim order passed by this Court is harshly working against the respondents and the whole process has been stalled. Therefore, he prays that the instant petition be disposed of at this stage and the rider imposed by this court be lifted.

Mr. Amit Gupta, learned counsel for the petitioner submits that the petitioner has been declared as L-1 in the light of the stand taken by the respondents in the reply affidavit and the petitioner is willing to work for the bid offered by the respondents and the petitioner shall not seek any escalation of the amount already offered by the petitioner and this aspect of the matter finds mention in the order dated 20.04.2024.

Mr. Amit Gupta, further submits that in the light of the aforesaid development, Mr. Vishal Sharma, DSGI was directed to have instructions in the matter.

Today, when the matter was taken up, Mr. Vishal Sharma, DSGI farily submits that the respondents will accord due consideration to the case of the petitioner being L-1 and take final decision in this regard and accordingly he prays one week’s time for doing the needful. He prays the disposal of the instant writ petition and also modification of the interim order.

In the aforesaid backdrop, with the consent of the learned counsel for the parties, the instant writ petition is taken up for final disposal and the interim direction passed by this court dated 16.06.2023 is modified by directing the respondents to decide the case of the petitioner being L-1 in the light of the stand 3 WP(C) No. 1640/2023 already taken by the respondents for award of the contract vis-à-vis the respective NIT within a period of one week from today and upon consideration of the case of the petitioner within the aforesaid period, the respondents are at liberty to proceed further in the matter subject to the outcome of the said decision.