No Right Accrues In Favour Of Bidders Of A Tender Offer Unless The Same Is Approved By Higher Authorities: Orissa High Court

The writ petitions filed by participants of a tender offer challenging the action of the Superintending Engineer and Chief Engineer in cancelling the tender was dismissed by Orissa High Court. A Bench consisting of Chief Justice S. Muralidhar and Justice B.P. Routray held that when the tender is yet to be approved by higher authorities, no right accrues in favor of the participants, and they cannot challenge the action of the authorities in cancelling the tender. In this case, a joint writ petition was filed by the petitioners challenging the cancellation of Tender Call invited by the Executive Engineer, Bhubaneswar to execute the Hydro Mechanical Gate works under different Civil Divisions. The petitioners in this case were successful bidders, however, there was a delay in finalizing the tender process. The petitioners thereby filed individual petitions before the Court, and in the meantime, the Superintending Engineer and the Chief Engineer passed an order intimating the rejection of tender as the tender documents were found defective and the discrepancies regarding “Structure and Organization”, “Plant and Equipment” and “Performance record” were noticed during re-scrutinization.