The Bombay High Court on Tuesday directed nodal transport
provider BEST –Brihanmumbai Electric Supply and Transport - to re-issue the
tender for electric buses, terming the earlier process ‘incorrect’ where
Hyderabad-based Evey Trans Pvt Ltd had won the bid.
The Telangana-based company will challenge the order in the
Supreme Court, the company spokesperson told ET.
Tata
Motors Ltd had challenged its disqualification
in the bidding process, seeking the court’s intervention to quash the tender
process claiming alleged ‘irregularities’.
The division bench of Justice SV Gangapurwala and Justice
Madhav Jamdar, in its oral order, had upheld Tata Motors’ disqualification but
said that the decision of BEST to hold Evey Trans’s bid ‘responsive’ is incorrect
and BEST may, if required, issue a fresh tender.
This would result in the cancellation of the tender awarded
to Evey Trans.
The genesis of the dispute lies in the tender floated by the
BEST inviting bids for operating 1,400 electric buses in Mumbai and its
extended suburbs on a gross cost contract model for 12 years. The tender was
won by Evey Trans Pvt Ltd, with the order being valued at about Rs 2,450 crore.
Senior Advocate Abhishek Manu Singhvi, along with Karanjawala
& Co, appeared for Tata Motors and argued that the company’s technical bid
was arbitrarily rejected by the state body to give an unfair favour to Evey Trans
Pvt Ltd, which won the tender. The company also argued that BEST selectively
relaxed norms to allow other bidders and this benefitted the bidder and even
waived certain requirements for them.
Tata Motors had challenged the award of the tender to Evey on
the ground that two hours before the technical evaluation, in complete
disregard of tender conditions that put a specific embargo on any changes to
the technical bid after its opening, BEST allowed Evey Trans to change its bid.
The Tata Group company also argued that its bid, in
conformity with the tender conditions, had provided a guarantee that its buses
can ply 200 km on a single charge of 80% without any interruption.
Countering this, Senior Counsel Venkatesh Dhond, appearing
for BEST, argued that the company was a bidder in a tender process and its bid
was declared ‘technically non-responsive’ for allegedly deviating from tender
specifications, and hence it has no locus standi to question the process.
BEST has claimed that the deviation range mentioned by Tata
Motors was not acceptable as per the tender issued. This was erroneous as per
the automaker, which said its bid was in conformity with the conditions of the
tender by guaranteeing an operating range of 200 kilometres with 80% charge
without any interruption.
Anuja Abhyankar, from Lexicon Law Partners, said: “Bombay
High Court has held that BEST committed an error in holding Evey Trans Limited
being the successful bidder… Now we await the detailed order of the Hon’ble
Court to decide the further course of action.”
BEST also argued that the company was trying to amend its bid
and that it ought to be “technically responsive” and considered by the public
body.
In this case, Tata Motors was represented by Senior Advocate
Abhishek Manu Singhvi and law firms Karanjawala & Co and Lexicon Law
Partners. Senior advocate Venkatesh Dhond appeared for BEST and advocate
Somasekhar Sundaresan appeared for Evey Trans.
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