Case: M/s. CRRC Corporation Ltd Vs. Metro Link Express for Gandhinagar & Ahmedabad (Mega) Company Ltd


Decision:
1[ds]34. A plain reading of clause 4.1 reveals that a bidder can be a single entity or a combination of such entities in the form of a J.V. or a Consortium under an existing agreement or with the intent to enter into such an agreement supported by a letter of intent. Thus a single entity has been construed to be a valid bidder for all intents and purposes.35. Having regard to the magnitude of the project as well as the experience and expertise essential for the quality execution thereof, there seems to be no justification to infer, at the first place, to exclude a government owned entity with its 100% wholly owned subsidiaries to be ineligible to participate in the process. A single entity, in our comprehension, would assuredly include such a government owned entity along with its 100% wholly owned subsidiaries. This is more so on the touchstone of otherwise imperative facilitation of a broad based participation of entities with competing worth and capabilities, in the overall interest of the timely and quality execution of a public project.36. As recorded in Consortium of Titagarh Firema Adler SPA (supra), theis a government owned entity with 100% wholly owned subsidiaries as a composite unit, so much so that the experience of any one of its constituent 100% wholly owned subsidiaries would be construable as its experience. It was proclaimed that the petitioner (respondent no.2 therein) was a Government Company and the owner of its subsidiary companies and that the concept of "government own entity" could not be given a narrow construction so as to exclude its subsidiaries with their experience and that there was no necessity for the formation of a joint venture and consortium for the Government own entity to avail the benefit of the experience of its subsidiary companies. That the acceptance of the petitioner (respondent no.2) therein in the context of the work awarded to it was in accord with public interest, having regard to the overall commercial concept and the demand of expertise, was underlined as well. Noticeably, the process of merger of M/s. CNR Corporation and M/s. CSR Corporation and the integration thereof along with their subsidiaries to metamorphosise into theis borne out by the coeval records.37. In that view of the matter, the status and the entitlements of theas already adjudicated in Consortium of Titagarh Firema Adler SPA (supra), as a single entity bidder in the present tender process would also by the yardstick of simple logic and analogy be available to it. Absence of the words "government owned entity" in clause 4.1, presently under consideration, is of no consequence. The plea of the respondent that the tender conditions involved demand a different perspective in the overall conceptual framework thereof, lacks persuasion. Significantly, in clause 4.1 involved in Consortium of Titagarh Firema Adler SPA (supra), "government owned entity" had been contemplated as one of the bidders in contradistinction to "private entity" and "any combination of such entities" in the form of a joint venture (J.V)..... The expression used in the present clause being "single entity", understandably, it is inclusive of a private as well as a government owned entity. The unit envisaged as a single entity is thus independent of any combination or formation in the form of a J.V. or a Consortium and thus is visualised to be one integral and composite whole. In such a logical premise, a government owned company with its 100% wholly owned subsidiaries has to be comprehended as a single entity, eligible to bid in terms of clause 4.1 of the tender conditions and is to be regarded as single, coherent and homogeneous existence and not a disjointed formation.38. The queries and the clarifications, relatable to the discord, as presented, also in our discernment, do not substantiate the plea of MEGA in any manner whatsoever. The foundation of its rejection of the appellants bid is the clarification to the query mainly at serial No. 50. It is patent therefrom that it was in response to a query made by a subsidiary company to allow for its benefit, the experience of the parent company/group companies to meet the qualification requirement with regard thereto. It was in that context that the clarification furnished was that the subsidiary company/group companies may bid together with the parent company as J.V./Consortium member, for parent/group companys experience to be taken into account. This clarification was extended and appliedthe appellant qua clauses Nos. 2.4.1, 2.4.2(a), 2.4.2(b) and 2.4.2.(c) to disqualify it on the ground that on stand alone basis, it was deficient in the experience prescribed and that it could not have availed of the experience of its subsidiaries companies. As rightly contended on behalf of the appellant, we are of the view that this clarification has no application to its case and, therefore, the decision to disqualify it on this ground is apparently arbitrary, discriminatory, unreasonable, illogical andthus rendering the same irreversibly illegal, unjust and unfair. The improvement endeavoured by the respondent in its reply affidavit is belied by the records and is unacceptable. No other view or elucidation of the relevant clauses of the tender conditions is at all possible. The interpretation offered by the respondent and endorsed by the High Court in the contextual framework is thus patently impermissible and absurd.39. Not only the appellant as the record testifies had offered its responses to the clarifications sought for, its status as a government owned corporation, by no means, has been disputed by MEGA. Further, in the face of its demonstrated structural integrity and functional unity qua its subsidiaries with all consequential legal implications, the apprehension of MEGA that the subsidiary companies of the appellant, if necessity so arises, would not be available for the execution of the project, not being a party to the contract, to say the least, is speculative, unfounded, farfetched and wanting in reason and rationale. Whether the subsidiary companies of the appellant would be responsible for the execution of the work is evinced by the formational specifics and functional dynamics of the appellant and its wholly owned subsidiary companies, as noticed in Consortium of Titagarh Firema Adler SPA (supra) in the affirmative and does not call for further dilation. In the face of a forensic analysis of the decisions cited at the Bar in the above adjudication, it is inessential as well to retraverse the same.40. In the wake up of above determination, the impugned disqualification of the appellant on the ground of deficiency, in experience in terms of clause 2.4, is unsustainable in law and on facts being grossly illegal, arbitrary and perverse. As a corollary, the judgment and order of the High Court in challenge is alsoThe tender process in view of the above conclusion, would be furthered hereinafter as per the terms and conditions thereof and in accordance with law and taken to its logical end as expeditiously as possible. We make it clear that the present adjudication is confined only to the issue of disqualification of the appellant on the ground of experience on the touchstone of clause 2.4 of the "Eligibility and Qualification Criteria" of "Tender Document" and no other aspect.