Shree Balaji Transport Corporation v. Food Corporation of India
Civil WP 2440/2016
In the High Court of Punjab and Haryana
Before Justice SJ Vazifdar, Additional Chief Justice and Justice Arun Palli
Decided on February 18, 2016

Relevancy of the case: Whether tenders signed with digital signatures can be considered as duly signed or not?

Statutes and Provisions involved

• The Information Technology Act, 2000 (Section 2(p), 2(q))

Relevant Facts of the case

• The petitioners were to submit an online bid. The bid was to be submitted in a particular format as prescribed by the FCI.
• The clause read as follows: The bidders are to submit the soft copies of their bid electronically on the CPP portal, using valid digital signatures. Instructions given below are meant to assist the bidders in registering on the CPP Portal, prepare their bids in accordance with the requirement and submit their bids online on the CPP portal.
• The bidder had to digitally sign and upload the required bid documents one by one.
• The clause above clearly mentioned digital signature was to be accepted.

Opinion of the Bench

• The bench was of the opinion that the definition of a digital signature as per the IT Act, 2000 should not be applicable owing to the fact that the contractual clauses clearly specify different terms. The contractual terms should supersede.
• Further, the court noted that earlier on, the petitioners had used the digital signature to digitally sign their bid which was accepted by the defendant. If the defendant did so in earlier tenders, they should not have any issues to do it in the current tender.

Final Decision

The bid signed using the digital signature card was accepted, even though the contractual terms demanded otherwise, it was reasonable for the petitioner to follow the definition of a digital signature as per the IT Act, 2000.

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