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Allahabad High Court · body

2016 DIGILAW 2156 (ALL)

N. K. Enterprises v. State of U. P.

2016-06-07

V.K.SHUKLA, YASHWANT VARMA

body2016
JUDGMENT The petitioner, who is intending bidder, seeks to challenge certain conditions imposed in the tender document requiring the bidders to submit solvency certificate, character certificate and registration certificate in original together with the bid document. The petitioner has submitted that this condition causes serious hardship where a bidder may have submitted bids in response to a number of tender notices and consequently the filing of attested copies together with an affidavit should be treated as sufficient. 2. In regard to the submission of character and solvency certificates, a Division Bench of this Court in Rajnath Singh Vs. State of U.P. & Ors.1 passed the following order : - "By this writ petition, the petitioner has raised a practical difficulty in producing the original character certificate and solvency certificate (Form T-4 and Form T-5) along with each tender. It is submitted by the counsel for the petitioner that condition No.2.5 of the 'instructions to bidders (ITB)' issued to bidders along with tender form provides that character certificate and solvency certificate are to be filed in original. He submits that advertisement dated 28,08.2012, issued by the Public Works Department, Mau provides for filing Form T-4 and Form T-5 in original whereas in the notice inviting tender published on 22.09.2012 from the office of Public Works Department, Allahabad provides that certified copy of character and solvency certificates be filed along with declaration on affidavit that these certificates are valid. We find substance in the contention of the counsel for the petitioner that filing of original certificates will restrict the bidder to only one bid, which some time gets extended. A person cannot be restricted to submit bid, if he is a registered contractor and has valid certificates, in response to only one notice inviting bids. In order to resolve the difficulty, which is being faced by contractors, we provide that the respondents shall not insist upon filing of the character certificate and solvency certificate in original along with the bid document. They may file attested true copies of these documents along with an affidavit verifying that these two documents are valid. The competent authority, will however insist upon production of these certificates at the time of opening the bids, for comparing it with the original. If the competent authority is not satisfied, he may reject the bid on the ground of non-production of these certificates." 3. The competent authority, will however insist upon production of these certificates at the time of opening the bids, for comparing it with the original. If the competent authority is not satisfied, he may reject the bid on the ground of non-production of these certificates." 3. The same view has been followed in several other cases including the judgment of a Division Bench of this Court in Shriram Yadav Vs. State of U.P. & 2 Others2. 4. The only additional document which is now required to be submitted in original is a registration certificate. A Division Bench of this Court in Writ-C No.10293 of 20153, while disposing of the writ petition on 25 February 2015, observed that relaxation in submitting the character certificate and solvency certificate in original with the bid document should also apply for submission of the registration certificate. 5. In view of the aforesaid decisions, we direct that the respondents shall not insist upon the filing of the character certificate, solvency certificate and registration certificate in original together with the bid documents. The bidders may file attested true copies of these documents together with an affidavit verifying that the said documents are valid. The competent authority shall, however, insist upon production of the original certificates at the time of opening of the bids. If the authorities are not satisfied upon comparison with the originals, the bid may be rejected for non-production of these certificates at that stage. We clarify that these directions shall govern those cases only where the last date for submission of the bid has not expired and where the last date has already expired, this order shall not require the re-opening of the process. 6. The writ petition is, accordingly, disposed of. There shall be no order as to costs.