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Vinishma Technologies Pvt. Ltd. vs State of Chhattisgarh & Anr.

Not available · 2025 INSC 1182Decided 6 Oct 2025
Not available
Justice Sanjay Kumar · Justice Alok Aradhe

Background

The Chhattisgarh government floated tender notices for supply of Sports Kits to students of government primary, upper-primary and high/higher-secondary schools under the Samagra Shiksha scheme. The appellant, a company with experience supplying Sports Kits in other states, challenged a tender condition that effectively restricted eligible bidders to those with past experience supplying specifically to Chhattisgarh government agencies. The Chhattisgarh High Court rejected the challenge in three separate writ petitions, upholding the condition, reasoning that Chhattisgarh's Maoist/Naxal-affected terrain justified reliance only on locally experienced suppliers.

Decision Breakdown

The Supreme Court held that the impugned tender condition was arbitrary, unreasonable, and discriminatory, with no rational nexus to the object of ensuring effective supply of Sports Kits. It reasoned that Sports Kits are not security-sensitive goods requiring special local expertise, that only some districts of Chhattisgarh are actually Naxal-affected (so treating the entire state as uniformly affected was flawed), and that a successful outside bidder could always engage local logistics/supply chains to fulfil the contract. The condition therefore violated Article 14 (equality) and Article 19(1)(g) (freedom of trade). The Court quashed the High Court's orders as well as the underlying tender notices, allowing the appeals, while permitting the State to float fresh tenders without the offending restriction.

Lesson Learnt

A government tender condition that shuts out otherwise qualified bidders must have a genuine, rational connection to the actual requirements of the contract, invoking generalised law-and-order or security concerns to justify a blanket local-experience requirement, when the goods involved carry no special risk, is constitutionally impermissible.

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

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