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M/S N Ramachandra Reddy v. The State of Telangana

Civil Appeal · 2019 INSC 970Decided 28 Aug 2019
Civil Appeal No. 6673 of 2019
Justice S. Abdul Nazeer · Justice R. Subhash Reddy

Background

The Telangana Roads and Buildings Department floated a tender for construction of a road in Mahabubabad District under a scheme for Left Wing Extremism-affected areas, which required bidders to prove ownership of a "Batch Type Hot Mix Plant" located within 100 km of the work site. The appellant and the fourth respondent (the original writ petitioner) both bid; the appellant quoted the lower price and was issued the Letter of Intent after producing a certificate showing its plant was 99.05 km away. The fourth respondent disputed this distance, and after conflicting verification reports (one showing 101.50 km via one route, and a shorter distance via an alternate route), the Chief Engineer accepted the appellant's eligibility. The fourth respondent's writ petition challenging this was dismissed by a Single Judge of the Telangana High Court, but a Division Bench (in a Letters Patent Appeal) reversed that dismissal, prompting the appellant to approach the Supreme Court.

Decision Breakdown

The Supreme Court held that the Division Bench had erred in interfering with the Single Judge's finding that the Chief Engineer's re-verification process (calling an independent report from a Superintending Engineer who was not the jurisdictional officer) was fair and reasonable, especially since there was no prescribed procedure barring such independent verification. The Court reaffirmed the settled principle that an intra-court appellate bench should not disturb a Single Judge's findings unless they are shown to be perverse, and that courts exercise limited, corrective judicial review over tender/contractual matters rather than re-appreciating technical eligibility findings de novo. Finding no tender-condition violation and no case for extraordinary interference, the Court allowed the appeal, set aside the Division Bench's order, and restored the Single Judge's order upholding the award of the tender to the appellant, with no order as to costs.

Lesson Learnt

Courts exercise limited judicial review over government tender decisions and will not second-guess a technical eligibility verification made through a fair process, even an unconventional one, unless it is shown to be arbitrary or perverse, and an appellate bench hearing an intra-court appeal should not overturn a trial judge's factual findings unless they are clearly perverse.

Official source (sci.gov.in)View Judgment (PDF)

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