Shapoorji Pallonji & Co. Pvt. Ltd. v. State of Maharashtra
In the High Court of Bombay
WP(L) 2070/2017
Before Justice Anoop V. Mohta and Justice Bharati H. Dangre
Decided on September 28, 2017

Relevancy of the Case: Submission of a bid affected because of a technical glitch in the bidding process

Statutes and Provisions Involved

• The Information Technology Act, 2000 (Section 13)

Relevant Facts of the Case

• In this present case, the petitioner challenged the inaction of the respondent who did not consider the petitioner’s bid for the tender.
• Maharashtra Housing Development Authority issued an e-tender notice inviting proposals for a project. There was a bidders’ manual kit available. The last date for submission of the proposal was May 27, 2017.
• The petitioners relied upon a screenshot on the bid screen which confirmed that they had submitted the bid.
• When the authority opened the bids, they informed the petitioner that their bid has not been received in the respondent’s system. Hence, they will not consider it a valid bid.
• On the court’s directions, National Informatics Centre (NIC) concluded that there was no receipt of confirmed bidding that was generated.

Prominent Arguments by the Advocates

• The petitioner’s counsel argued that they should not lose on the bidding opportunity due to a technical glitch in the system. There are three bidders at present. Therefore, having an additional bidder will serve the public interest.

Opinion of the Bench

• It is critical to guarantee that technological malfunctions do not affect the bidders in a tendering process.
• However, NIC has not denied the factual statements made by the petitioner concerning their bid. Also, NIC has also failed to answer the questions posed by the court.

Final Decision

• The court allowed the petition and directed NIC to help MHADA in accessing the files containing bid documents.